Train Wreck

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February 6, 2008 6:05 AM PST

Ten irrelevant technology companies

by Steve Tobak
  • 15 comments

The great corporate graveyard is filled with hundreds, maybe thousands, of technology companies that managed to go public and then fizzled. Still, most of them weren't going anywhere and never should have gone public to begin with.

But venture capitalists funded them, investment banks underwrote them, analysts wrote glowing reports about them, and you and I bought into it, gullible lemmings that we are. Sorry for being such a negatron; that's just the way it is.

Anyway, what's different about these 10 companies is that they were once important, maybe even exciting. And now, for one reason or another, they're fading slowly and tediously into obscurity. Like people, most companies go out, not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Depressing, isn't it? ... Read more

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About Train Wreck

Steve Tobak is a marketing consultant and former chip industry executive. Train Wreck provides insight into dysfunctional corporate behavior, among other things. When he's not airing the industry's dirty laundry, Steve likes to hang around the house, make believe he's working, and drive his wife crazy. Find out more at www.invisor.net or email Steve at trainwreck@invisor.net. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.

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