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Quote of the Day
The real trouble with this world of ours…is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite. Life is not an illogicality; yet it is a trap for logicians. It looks just a little more mathematical and regular than it is; its exactitude is obvious, but its in-exactitude is hiding; its wildness lies in wait.”
-Peter Bernstein, in Against the Gods – The Remarkable Story of Risk
July 15th – This Day in Stock Market History. Boeing Founded, Netscape shuts down, and Twitter Launches
July 15th, 1916 – William Boeing incorporates a company named the Pacific Aero Products Company with $100,000 in capital.
Less than a year later the company would change its name to Boeing and launch its first product, a single engine bi-plane with floats – The Boeing 1:
Today Boeing is the dominant producer of passenger airplanes in the world and does more than $100 billion in revenue each year.
As of July 2019, Boeing has a market cap of $200 billion!
July 15th, 2003 – America On Line (AOL), disbands Netscape Communications, which it had purchased on November 24th, 1998 for $4.2 billion.
Netscape was one of the early ‘dot com darlings’ as investors became infatuated with the internet, and its potential.
Netscape had its IPO on August 9th, 1995, where the company’s stock jumped 150% on the first day. The company would have a market cap of $2.7 billion after its first day of trading, with 6-month revenue of just $16.6 million.
However, like many of the tech bubble’s most infamous companies (AOL included!), the original internet darlings would be out innovated and become obsolete.
July 15th, 2006 – Twitter launches to the general public.
It would still be a years before ‘twttr’ became the ‘Twitter’ that we know today. Initially the service was based around group SMS messages.
Though it would only take Jack Dorsey and the other founders a few months to rebrand as ‘Twitter’ and become the micro-blogging platform that we are familiar with today.
Best July 15th in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
2009 – Up 3.07%, 256.72 points.
Worst July 15th in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
1996 – Down 2.92%, 161.05 points.
Read of the Day
Marc Andreessen was the founder of Netscape, and is now a very well known and successful venture capital investor, focusing on new technology startups.
Here is a great talk he gave the Standford’s School of Business in 2014. Whether you are an entrepreneur or investor, get some lessons from one of the best eyes for emerging technology today:
In the talk Andreessen recommends two of the “best books” on new technologies:
The Innovator’s Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business
And,
Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages
Andreessen’s company also has a great blog (and podcast) here: https://a16z.com/content/
Go To Next Day: July 16th, 1995 – Amazon’s first day of Business —>
