Cute n Fuzzy Bunnay said:
... I'd dump my microsoft stock...
Many times I've read Microsoft's history in an attempt to figure out when I should've bought the stock. Presumably the company would have displayed some sort of fundamentals that would make an investor go "Oooh!" and buy the shares in a reasonable expectation that they'd go up some more. Then I could apply my insights to a company going public in this millenium.
The problem is that every time Gates, Allen, Ballmer, or the rest of them opened their mouths, I'd run away screaming. This was when I was getting a graduate degree that was heavy in computer science, so we were pretty familiar with the industry's companies & names. (Anyone ever tried to use Windows 1.0 or 2.0?) Alongside Sun & Silicon Graphics, with all the other great OSs & Apple products, Microsoft was going to be plowed under any day. Heck, most of MS's revenue depended on IBM, which had just decided to write their own O/S2 software!
To be fair, I've felt the same way about McDonald's & Coca-Cola stock. And I spent way too much time dealing with Cisco routers in 1995 to be a fan of
that company.
My FIL was working CBS's Washington bureau Sunday morning TV news show (I think it was "Face the Nation") one day in '87 or '88 when Gates showed up for an interview. Gates jumped out of a cab at the door, went inside, and was escorted to the studio. No one recognized him, cared who he was, or gave a damn about what he did. My FIL says that one of the technicians kept jabbering excitedly about "the guy who invented DOS" and what a great stock Microsoft was. This tech had already thoroughly annoyed the crew about some guy named Jobs, so by this point the rest of the technicians were ready to duct-tape his mouth closed to get through the morning.
And of course Microsoft stock went up about 50% over that two year-period...
The difference between Gates (and his ilk) and Buffett is that Buffett's conversations draw a crowd where ever he sits. A common theme among Buffett's biographers is people who say that he mesmerized the audience wherever he spoke in the '50s & '60s, and he's just gotten better with practice.
That's who I want to find-- the next compelling financial investor like Buffett. Unlike the 1950s, today I guess it'd have to be someone at a hedge fund or even a mutual fund. But I think I'm going to pass on Bill Gates, Bill Gross, & Bill Miller.
I will now feel less guilty about not being able, or desiring, to contribute to all of the many worthy causes that I am given the opportunity to participate it.
