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Geek Wire
a minute ago
- Geek Wire
Bill Gates business card up for auction, with significant date from Microsoft's early days
Geek Life: Fun stories, memes, humor and other random items at the intersection of tech, science, business and culture. SEE MORE A Bill Gates business card obtained on Nov. 6, 1980, during a visit to the Microsoft co-founder's Bellevue, Wash., office. (Lelands Photo) Long before the days of tapping your smartphone against someone else's to share contact information, small paper business cards did the trick — even for someone as tech-savvy as Bill Gates. In a nod to simpler times, one such card is up for auction, featuring Gates' office address and telephone number from Microsoft's early days in Bellevue, Wash. The beige card features Microsoft's first logo, and Gates' name appears as 'William H. Gates,' a name more often associated with his father. The 45-year-old card is being offered by Lelands, a New Jersey auction house specializing in sports memorabilia and trading cards, as part of a 'Summer Classic Auction' that runs through Aug. 16 and features such items as L.A. Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani's 300th career home run ball and a rare Shoeless Joe Jackson 1914 signed baseball. There is a currently a single $500 bid on the Gates card. According to Lelands, the card was obtained directly by the consignor during a business meeting on Nov. 6, 1980, and was hand-dated by that person in black ink. The date is significant in tech and computer history because it's when Microsoft signed a deal with IBM to create an operating system for a new IBM personal computer. Gates and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen developed the Microsoft Disk Operating System, commonly known as MS-DOS, and according to a post on 'This Day in Tech History,' they 'shrewdly included a clause in the agreement [with IBM] that allowed them [Microsoft] to sell the operating system to other companies under the name MS-DOS.' 'That clause made Microsoft a giant, and it changed history,' Lelands says in its auction item description. Founded in 1975 in Albuquerque, N.M., Microsoft moved to Bellevue in January 1979. The company's office on Northeast 8th Street in the heart of the city's business district was on the eighth floor of the Old Bank Building. The location is now referred to as the Plaza Buildings. The phone number on the card includes a 206 area code for Seattle, before a split in 1997 created 425 for the growing Eastside and cities such as Bellevue and Redmond. Special coverage: Microsoft @ 50
Bloomberg
2 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Unity CEO: Company at an 'Inflection Point'
Unity Software CEO Matt Bromberg says the dip in his company's shares post-earnings is likely due to the run-up Unity shares have seen over the past year. Bromberg discusses what he calls the company's successful turnaround effort with Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow on 'Bloomberg Tech.' (Source: Bloomberg)
Forbes
2 minutes ago
- Forbes
Gartner Stock Down 49%. Learn Why, What CEO Can Do, And Whether To Buy $IT
Shares of Gartner plunged 28% on August 5, according to Google Finance, culminating in a wipe out of half the company's market value since the beginning of 2025. That one-day plunge followed a second quarter earnings report that beat revenue and growth expectations – but issued disappointing revenue guidance for 2025. Investors seemed more frustrated with management's failure to acknowledge the company's competitive disadvantages. During Gartner's investor conference call, executives blamed macroeconomic forces for the slower growth and avoided direct discussion of competitive risks – such as the rise of peer review networks – and frustrated investors due to the failure to supply hard data. Does Gartner's lower stock price represent a buying opportunity? Here are four reasons to avoid the stock: Gartner could grow faster by making the following changes to its strategy: Due to cultural barriers and cognitive biases – most notably an elitist 'Magic Quadrant' mentality which impedes acknowledging the company's competitive weaknesses and a 'toxic sales culture' that results in high turnover -- I question whether Gartner will be able to make the changes needed to revive double digit growth. Gartner touted its second quarter performance and envisions a brighter future. 'Second quarter Revenue, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EPS, and Free Cash Flow were ahead of expectations,' Gartner Chairman and CEO Gene Hall said in a statement. 'Contract value grew 5%. Since the end of the first quarter, we have accelerated our stock buybacks to increase shareholder value. As we continue to rollout AskGartner, our new AI-powered tool that provides faster access to trusted, proprietary Gartner business and technology insights, clients will realize even more value from their licenses,' Hall added. I requested comment from Gartner and will update this post if I receive a response. Gartner's Mixed Second Quarter Performance And Prospects Gartner – a Stamford, Conn.-based provider of researcher reports, conferences, and consulting to companies, government agencies, and investment firms – beat revenue and earnings targets in the June 2025-ending quarter and offered revenue guidance that fell short. Here are some key numbers: Why Gartner's Stock Fell 28% Gartner's stock fell sharply because the company significantly lowered its growth forecast for the core Insights business line and failed to offer a compelling explanation for why and what Gartner would do to revive its double digit growth. The slower contract value growth forecast – from 5.1% to 2.5% – shocked investors. This slow growth forecast prompted UBS to downgrade the company's stock. With +3% organic growth in 2026 -- from +6% previously, the slowing CV growth presents 'limited near-term upside,' UBS analysts led by Joshua Chanas wrote, according to SeekingAlpha. Gartner executives attributed the slowdown to macroeconomic pressures and client spending constraints. Management cited clients pulling back on discretionary spending for IT research and advisory services due to due to macroeconomic caution, according to Stocktwits. More significantly, due to AI, clients are finding they do not need to pay Gartner for insights. Instead, they are developing in-house tools and analysis -- using OpenAI and Anthropic models – thus creating uncertainty about future demand for Gartner's consulting and research services, noted The Motley Fool. In the Q2 investor conference call, executives did not acknowledge market share losses or strategic vulnerabilities. For instance, in response to questions about AI disruption and competitive threats, Gartner's CFO stressed the company's "proprietary insights behind firewalls" which customers view as less valuable since they are increasingly using peer insights such as G2, TrustRadius, Capterra, and Gartner's own Peer Insights, according to Big Valley Marketing. Gartner's failure to offer a root cause analysis of its slowing growth and a compelling vision of how the company will adapt and restore growth in the face of changing customer needs and competitor strategies may have left investors looking for more, according to the Q2 earnings call. What Gartner Must Do To Revive Growth While recently introducing AskGartner – a generative AI tool to enable clients to access the company's 'trusted, proprietary business and technology insights' – Gartner lags rivals, While McKinsey emphasizes human-AI collaboration, Deloitte focuses on ethical AI governance, and Forrester addresses data quality risks, Gartner is late to the AI consulting field, about which I wrote in Brain Rush. Here are three growth initiatives the company could take to restore growth: Unfortunately, Gartner faces significant cultural barriers to changing its strategy. Most notably, these hurdles include: Where Will Gartner Stock Go Next? Wall Street analysts see enormous upside in Gartner stock. Nine Wall Street analysts set an average 12 month price target of $453.63 – meaning the stock has 86% upside, according to TipRanks. Can Gartner's management adapt to the change in customer needs and competitor strategies as generative AI substitutes for its high priced subscription? If the answer is yes, those analysts will be right. But the strategy outlined above will be difficult for Gartner's culture to pull off.
