Comments on: Ten irrelevant technology companies

These 10 public technology companies were once important, even exciting. Now they're well on their way to obscurity.

[OccasionalPythonBoot]

While we're at it, let's add IBM to that list. They're a dinosaur--sort of the Sears Roebuck & Co. of technology firms. They were big back in your daddy's day, but yet they still hang in there, marching to their own beat, oblivious to the rest of the technology sector.

[MadLyb]

I have to disagree with PythonBoot. Even though I am no fan of IBM, they truly understand their customer's needs (of course, you may not be their customer). They have embraced Open Source, much more than any of the big traditionals, and have garnered a strong presence in the new IT sector. Xbox and PS3 (in concert with Sony) run on IBM processor technology.

That said, I still think the post Gerstner IBM is not as strong.

My pick for dying on the vine would be Novell. They have regained some relevance by shifting to Open Source, but the revenue just isn't the same.

[brrman]

IBM has been moving its focus to technology individuals (as in consulting) and software, and away from their traditional hardware for the past 10 years. Hence the sale to Lenovo, etc. Their 4qtr profit in 2007 rose 12% with strong 2008 guidance.

IBM is doing just fine as a company. They are not a dinosaur, but more like an crocodile - still alive after millions of years and not going anywhere.

[ryanmicj]

IBM is consitently in the top 3 in the world in terms of number of patents granted each year. While they may seem like a dinosaur at times - its hard to understand while they are still selling mainframes, unless you are in that market - they are clearly leading the rest of the technology sector in various ways.

[co_z]

This is a pretty ignorant statement - IBM has led the way in developing profitable open source business models, setting trends for what every other successful OSS company has done since. They are a $100 billion dollar company with a low multiple and stellar growth. They managed to change their entire way of doing business when the market demanded it, which is something the dinosaurs failed to do, if I can believe what wikipedia tells me.

If only american car companies could have been as dynamic, Detroit wouldn't be growing corn right now.

[ElMartino1]

I wouldn't be so fast to discredit Sun. Jon Schwartz is really giving that company the McNealy enema it's been needing for years.

[robd11]

I suppose one includes Mindspeed in the Conexant train wreck.
A few other noteables are:
Tundra Semi - steadily declining revenues since 2004 despite some aquisitions.
Zarlink Semi - oh boy, talk about losing money.
Mosaid - A nice stream of licensing fees from sueing folks over a few memory patents completely wasted on a bunch of ill conceived semi plays. They should fire everyone except the lawyers and accountants.

[stobak]

I considered Zarlink and some others, but decided they were never relevant to begin with.

I go back and forth on Novell, but definitely not what it used to be.

Schwartz has definitely improved Sun's bottom line, but The Street's still not buying it and neither am I. I just don't see a clear strategy for driving top-line growth like in the old days.

Steve Tobak

[robd11]

I think Zarlink (Mitel Semi) was relevant for about 2 seconds back in 2000, when the boom was never going to end and I was heading for retirement at age 35. (I never worked there BTW.) Here I am 7 yrs later still working for the man, surfing the web on company time.

[A_N_Onymous]

#11: CNET

[sal-magnone]

You forgot- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO_Group

[Andronicus]

Well the only company I have heard of is Sigmatel. Not sure that they are irrelevent. They make all the MC for all the cheep MP3 players.

[cozappz]

Cirrus Logic produced a chip for Fujitsu-Siemens HDDs which blew off 1 million HDDs. I RMA'd 10 of them, my team RMA'd 1000 HDDs. So, there's no surprise here.

[RicABlair]

Motorola, I guess, is already dead.

[Alpachino321]

Good wiki
http://capify.stikipad.com/wiki/show/HomePage
http://capify.stikipad.com/wiki/recent_activity/128
http://www.globalize-rails.org/globalize/recent_activity
http://ajaxscaffold.stikipad.com/doc/recent_activity/
http://ajaxscaffold.stikipad.com/doc/show/HomePage