The Gorilla Game: Picking Winners in High Technology

By Geoffrey A. Moore

Book Overview

The Possibilities Are Staggering: Had you invested $10,000 in Cisco Systems back in early 1990, your investment would now be worth $3,650,000 Similarly, a $10,000 investment made in Microsoft in 1986 would be valued at more than $4,721,000 today $10,000 invested in Yahoo in 1996 would today be worth $317,000 How do you get in on those deals--especially if you're not a Silicon Valley insider? How do you buy the high-tech win-ners and avoid the losers? How do you find the Yahoo s, Microsofts, and Ciscos of tomorrow? The answers are here, in this newly revised edition of the national bestseller The Gorilla Game. The book reveals the dynamics driving the market for high-tech stocks and out-lines the forces that catapult a select number of compa-nies to "gorilla" status--dominating the markets they serve in the way that Yahoo dominates internet portals, Microsoft dominates software operating systems, and Cisco dominates hardware for data networks. Follow the rules of The Gorilla Game and you will learn how to identify and invest in the "gorilla candidates" early on--while they are still fighting for dominance, and while their stocks are still cheap. When the dust clears and one company clearly attains leadership in its market, you'll reap the enormous returns that foresighted investors in high-tech companies deserve. This new edition of The Gorilla Game has been updated and revised throughout, with new focus and new insights into choosing the internet gorillas--the companies that are destined to dominate internet commerce. Bestselling author Geoffrey A. Moore is one of the world's leading consultants in high-tech marketing strategy. Here you'll find his groundbreaking ideas about tech-nology markets that made his previous books bestsellers, combined with the work of Paul Johnson, a top Wall Street technology analyst, and Tom Kippola, a high-tech consul-tant and highly successful private investor. Together they have discovered and played the gorilla game and now give readers the real rules for winning in the world of high-tech investing. Step by step you'll learn how to spot a high-tech market that is about to undergo rapid growth and development, how to identify and spread investments across the potential gorillas within the market, and how to narrow your investments to the single, emerging leader--the gorilla--as the market matures. High-tech investing can be extremely risky, but investors who learn to play the gorilla game can avoid many of the traps and pitfalls and instead start capitalizing on untold profits. Personal wealth is only a gorilla game away.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0887309577
• ISBN13: 9780887309571
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Harper Business
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Reverse Engineering to Invest in Intel, Cisco and Microsoft

A popular pastime for the past 50 years (and possibly before that) has been to look at the stocks that would have made you the most money in the last 10 or 20 years and devise an investment approach to find the next ones going forward that will do as well or better. I have lost count of how many books I have read that have taken this approach.I found the Gorilla Game to be refreshingly above the pack in this area. The authors do an excellent job of describing some of the ways that technologies get adopted, when the stocks do well (and when they don't), and when to buy and sell stocks in technology companies. They also devise a fairly detailed, somewhat risk-controlled investment process, and detail how it would have done in a number of case histories. From the backward-looking perspective, the book is solid.The weakness of such backward looking methods shows up in their new material in the revised edition (1999) on the Internet. Although some aspects of their model apply to the Internet, many do not. They are left needing to vaguely explain how so much money was made so quickly in Internet stocks. Their explanation is actually pretty solid, but they never quite come out and say that their methodology will not get you all of the fast-growing stocks in technology.They needed not be defensive. No methodology is perfect. The main weakness of this one is that is designed around semiconductors, software, and computers. The technology patterns can look a lot different in future technologies. For example, what will happen with companies like Gemstar that lead in new television technologies that could disrupt the Internet for direct marketing? The reason this point is important is that the barriers to switching are higher in the technologies studied here than in many other areas. If you get into a low cost of switching area (like business to consumer marketing on the Internet), you could invest in an industry leader and still lose your shirt. Although the book acknowledges these issues, it probably doesn't create a substantial enough warning. The book is aimed at the medium knowledge investor (about the markets and technology). I hope they bring out a more advanced version. They decided not to go into specialized semiconductors like analog devices where enormous profits may lie in the future, because of concerns about not going over the heads of readers. A lot of the best run technology companies with enormous growth potential in markets with high bariers to competitors were not discussed in this book. I am sure most readers would be willing to spend some time learning about these other markets in order to make enormous gains.Despite my quibbles, this is a fine book that will help all but those who are already quite knowledgeable about technology companies and technology investing. Good luck in capturing those irresistible gains in the future! Perhaps you will be the first person you know to ident

Required Reading for Individual Tech Investor

As an active investor in tech stocks (information technology), I highly recommend this book to other investors who are already in tech stocks or are considering it. The book explains in laymans terms the dynamics of the technology marketplace . The information it provides will assist you in how to differenciate each tech company from another in regards to it's particular role in its market, and the investment strategy you should pursue (short/intermediate/long term). I liked the book so much, I'm ordering the cassette as well to wring every ounce of investment advice I can get out of it.

GREAT INSIGHT ON HOW AN INVESTOR CAN WIN ON WALL STREET

I try to read all the newest stock market books. This one is full of new insights that I will be able to profit by in my future trades. This book should be in the library of all serious investors. Another book that I highly recommend for those who are interested in picking high tech stocks is MAKING DOLLARS WITH PENNIES: HOW THE SMALL INVESTOR CAN BEAT THE WIZARDS ON WALL STREET by R. Max Bowser. Bowser has 25 profitable years of investing in high tech as well as other stocks, mostly in the low-priced range. Bowser explains twelve factors that one should look at before picking a stock. His system is compatable with the methods written about in THE GORILLA GAME.

High-Tech Investment Bible

This book has totally transformed my stock selection technique and resulted in a portfolio that is absolutely crushing the general market. I can not say enough about how highly I regard the information outlined in this book. Which high-tech stocks win on Wall St and why? The book sets forth a framework in which investors can understand how to value one stock in comparison to another. After reading it the world of investing finally started to make sense. This book is useful for any person that is out to find the next Microsoft. Buy this book.

Perhaps even more important for employees than investors

This book was recommended to me by a seasoned, sophisticated investor. It's a must read--not only for technology investors (people who invest MONEY)---but it's perhaps even more important for persons trying to decide which high-tech company to work for (people who invest TIME). That's because the potential appreciation from employee stock options makes one's choice of employer more important than ever.