Ten Tech Companies That Blew It in the Past Two Decades

by Jay Garmon in Enterprise Software

on January 28, 2007, 3:41 AM PST

Ten Tech Companies That Blew It in the Past Two Decades

David Louis Edelman–author of the highly successful IT-oriented sci-fi novel Infoquake–lists Ten Tech Companies That Blew It in the Past Two Decades. Nobody you wouldn’t expect, but it’s a nice trip down memory lane for those of us who remember when running a Netscape browser on a Compaq laptop wasn’t a punchline. It’s actually scary ...

David Louis Edelman–author of the highly successful IT-oriented sci-fi novel Infoquake–lists Ten Tech Companies That Blew It in the Past Two Decades. Nobody you wouldn’t expect, but it’s a nice trip down memory lane for those of us who remember when running a Netscape browser on a Compaq laptop wasn’t a punchline. It’s actually scary just how many of these companies don’t exist as independent entities anymore. The list…

Atari
Netscape
Palm
AOL
Apple
Sony
Gateway
Compaq
Intuit
RealNetworks

So, did he miss anybody? And who do you think will show up on (or disappaear from) this same list in another five or ten years time? Vote away, and tell me why.

By Jay Garmon

The Trivia Geek, known to some by the mysterious alias "Jay Garmon," is an online community entrepreneur trying his luck with some promising Internet startups. To get the real skinny on his wacky business ideas--and his amateurish sci-fi short stories--read his blog, JayGarmon.net. It's like Jay without editorial oversight or decent engineering support. \ \ Jay is also the diabolical mind behind TechRepublic's Geek Trivia newsletter, a former contributing editor of TR's Geekend blog, and until March of 2008 was a project manager for TR site feature development. \ \ In a previous life (read: fresh out of college), he was an ad man, toiling away for low pay and less respect as a copywriter and producer of print ads, radio spots, and TV commercials. No, you've probably never seen his work. Be thankful. \ \ Between his ad days and his life as a TechRepublicist, he worked briefly as a Web developer, mostly using (shudder) FrontPage and SQL Server to build rickety and poorly conceived database-driven Web sites. He was self-taught, and it showed. He's also dabbled in proposal writing, though he wouldn't recommend that as a career choice. \ \ Today, when he's not trying to build the next Internet media giant, Jay reads some comic books, plays tabletop RPGs, helps run a local sci-fi con, tries to launch a career as a fiction author, watches a lot of sports, and keeps his wife and daughter happy. The last part is easiest.

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Ten Tech Companies That Blew It in the Past Two Decades

Ten Tech Companies That Blew It in the Past Two Decades

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