
Deathwatch 2016: Companies and tech whose time may have come - dwgirvan
http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/01/ars-deathwatch-2016-companies-and-tech-whose-time-may-have-come/
======
hwstar
1 An extended period of lost market share in their particular category

2\. An extended period of financial losses or a pattern of annual losses

3\. Serious management problems that raise questions about the business model
or long-term strategy of the company

Gee, that sounds exactly what happened to the company I used to work for.

I'll add a couple more red flags to the 3 mentioned in the article:

4\. As an engineer, you get calls from a supplier asking why accounts payable
isn't returning their calls.

5\. Poor employee benefits as the company can't afford to offer what is
typically offered in the job market.

Additionally, they constantly tried to raise more capital with stock offerings
to cover "general business expenses", and merged with several other companies
in similar condition to make a bigger steaming pile of high entropy /low
energy content matter to offer the gullible investment community.

There are a lot of these companies out there. They should be culled as they
are toxic to the economy. The problem is, you have C-level management and
investment companies which specialize in dicing and slicing these troubled
companies to present to investors, and that prolongs the pain to customers,
investors, and employees.

------
dano
Streaming music services are never likely to make money:

1\. Cost of goods is not controllable

2\. Competition is arguably my-playlist-algorithm is better than yours.

3\. Google, Amazon, and Apple run their service at break even to a loss and
make up the difference with ancillary revenue.

I'm surprised FourSquare wasn't listed. They're going for another $40mm round
at half of their prior valuation.

------
stefanve
My first BlackBerry phone is a passport, I would miss BlackBerry OS if (when)
it dies. both the form factor as well as the OS makes it the best productivity
device I ever owned.(I used ios and a lot of flagship android phones before
owning the passport)

It is a shame that BlackBerry tried to market BlackBerry OS as an consumer OS.
Also most gadget reviewers like games and the latest social media platforms so
it seems silly to send a unit for review to them. I think they failed to
market it correctly while the market for this type of device is smaller than
for an iPhone it is bigger than the number of BlackBerry devices sold.

I really hope they continue to make BlackBerry OS devices I dread the day I
have to go back to android or iphone

------
Grishnakh
Best Buy: why on earth does anyone shop here when you can get it on Amazon for
much less, with a better return policy?

GM: why would anyone buy a car from a company that covers up safety defects?

Yahoo: what do they still do? I have no idea how they're still alive except
for Alibaba.

Microsoft: who wants an OS that spies on them and has the worst UI
conceivable? How long can they continue dumping cash on phones that no one
wants?

Blackberry: even the US government doesn't use them any more.

Comcast (and friends): I can only hope.... too bad they have local monopolies
on cable service. Google Fiber can't come fast enough.

------
rasputhin
I guess the 56k dialup business still has legs. If anything should die already
it should be that Internet relic.

