Iomega: The Original Message Board Tug-o-War Stock

With its announced acquisition by EMC (EMC) for less than $4 a share, we close the books on Iomega (IOM), one of the great — no, make that the The Original — Internet tug-o-war/message board stocks.

It seems much longer than 12 years ago that the battle over Iomega reached its crescendo as its stock peaked at close to $140 a share on the success of its Zip drive, a technological but especially marketing marvel. A portable hard drive — imagine that!

The bears, as usual, were early, claiming that prices would fall, competition would emerge and technology would zap the Zip.

The bulls, as usual, were blinded by the light.

“It was the start of an era,” recalls Jim “Rev Shark” DePorre of sharkinvesting.com, momentum investor extraordinaire, who wrote the book, “Invest Like a Shark,” and who was the most vocal of the Iomegans, as we called them back then. “It really is a good story on how momentum hit the mainstream.”

Them was the days. Iomegans, thanks for the memories. R.I.P.

Comments

[lurker439:]

I am sure you don't remember me, but back in 1996 I told you that you just did not get it when you refused to believe the Iomega Zip drive would replace the floppy drive. IOMG kept going up and up, and I kept asking you when you were going to throw in the towel and admit you were wrong. When you finally said in May 1996 "I throw in the towel" the stock peaked and then crashed. It was all your fault. If you had stayed an unrepentant pessimist the stock would have kept going up.

2008 Apr 09 07:02 PM