The US equity markets are now officially in the midst of the second longest continuous rise ever – and they just keep on ticking. It’s been more than 2,700 calendar days since the 2009 bottom – without a 20% pull back. Can it continue? Can we surpass the to 3,452 day bull market that ended with the tech market crash in 2000? Maybe we can – at least in the dozen+ sectors of the information-technology industry that we follow and sometimes lead. Every week, we talk to the CEOs, Board members, investors and others connected with a wide range of…
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Successful businesses don’t just happen. And, in spite of protestations to the contrary, they don’t owe their success to luck; businesses thrive as a result of strong leadership.
We are routinely approached by companies, shareholders and boards of directors telling us that their company was approached by a prospective buyer anxious to consummate a transaction. They may even have a non-binding indicative offer in hand – or expect one shortly. It can be exciting to have a sophisticated firm find your baby to be attractive – rewarding to be approached by a big potential buyer and it could be a load off your mind after years and years of hard work for a possible large payoff. But more often than not, we have found that one-off acquisition processes fail, or – at best – result in a sub-optimal deal. The examples are legion. The problems with these ad-hoc discussions are many.
With the advent of HTML 1 in 1993, which standardized the language used to create web pages, the potential of the internet became unlocked. With applications written in HTML combined with a viable connection (and authorization), suddenly anyone could access a treasure trove of information from anywhere on the planet – and sometimes beyond. (Think Hubble and the Mars Rover). With HTML, the internet effectively sped up the process of globalization to light speed. What would be next?
