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Rank: 43
Why They (Still) Matter: In their heyday, they'd have topped this list. Even now these tech giants are hardly toothless, with combined revenue of nearly $100 billion a year, profit of roughly $15 billion, and command of either the No. 1 or 2 spot in key markets like business software, chips, and PCs. Yet with the ongoing evolution toward an Internet-centric world, they don't seem so scary anymore. They're trapped in mature businesses and besieged by pricing pressures, and those trends aren't likely to change. Ellison is pursuing growth by buying rivals. Otellini has been consumed by management overhauls while Intel's engineers have been beaten to the punch in 64-bit chip technology. Dell's ability to master supply chains and bleed costs may have reached its limits; he's now surrendering market share to Hewlett-Packard. All of these companies have made historic contributions to the tech world. Nonetheless, though comets haven't rained down on them just yet, we may be witnessing the twilight of the pre-Internet predators.The Pre-Internet Dinosaurs Larry Ellison (Oracle), Paul Otellini (Intel), and Michael Dell (Dell) |
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