Word: coked
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...consumer products, once the buy-and-hold, sleep-at-night formula for riches, has lost much of its appeal. Just compare the performance of Berkshire Hathaway, the repository of great American brands assembled by legendary investor Warren Buffett, with that of Bill Gates' Microsoft--or Dell or Intel. Is Coke no longer "it"? Have brands like American Express and Disney lost their luster? What has caused Buffett-style consumer brands to lag behind the big tech stocks...
Simultaneously, Microsoft and Intel and to a lesser extent Dell and Cisco, the two other great NASDAQ performers, have become the new global brand names. "Intel Inside" is almost as recognizable in China and Eastern Europe these days as are Coke or McDonald...
...away some of the pizazz. And some of the great brands have run out of room to show double-digit growth without bumping into one another. This week saw another tough quarter from Pepsi, which can seem to win only if it spends massively to take market share from Coke. Microsoft and Intel face far fewer constraints on their growth...
...brand-name investing lost all its allure? I don't think so. After shying away from Coke for many years, I have dipped my toe in, as the dollar's recent weakness, coupled with some fresh positive trends in Europe and Asia, could bring a return of more consistent growth. My fears have diminished only because Coke has surprised to the downside so often lately that I think the worst may be over. Much of the bad news may be, at last, priced into the stock. Nevertheless, with Coke selling at 40 times this year's expected earnings...
Consider the latest electronic health scare: about the artificial sweetener aspartame, which is found in everything from Equal to Diet Coke. A widely disseminated e-mail by a "Nancy Markle" links aspartame to Alzheimer's, birth defects, brain cancer, diabetes, Gulf War syndrome, lupus, multiple sclerosis and seizures. Right away, the long list warrants skepticism. Just as no single chemical cures everything, none causes everything...