A Wall Street Journal article (requires login) about the cash hoards of some tech companies:

Despite the high-tech industry's worst downturn ever, a number of companies in the sector have been quietly accumulating enormous cash hoards.

Just five tech giants -- Microsoft Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., Intel Corp., Dell Computer Corp. and Oracle Corp. -- now hold a staggering $87 billion in cash and liquid investments. That is up from $77 billion a year ago, and suggests that these companies, whose revenue declined as much as 35%, aren't as sick as conventional wisdom dictates.

77 billion dollars is a lot of money indeed. Is it a coincidence that the cash reserves of these companies is directly proportional to the lack of competition in their markets? I don't think so. In fact, the biggest the monopoly, the biggest the cash reserve. Microsoft tops the list, followed by Cisco, then Intel, then Oracle and Dell. Monopoly pays!

Categories: technology
Posted by diego on December 28 2002 at 8:59 PM