Today I saw in the news that Opsware (OPSW) is bought out by HP. Interestingly, OPSW is one of the first stocks I bought in my Scottrade account. The reason I bought it is simple: it’s being mentioned in the Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine, and its founder and CEO Marc Andreessen is the developer and the co-founder of Netscape. Opsware is software/solution provider for data centers, it did not turn out to be a blockbuster, but I did get moderate return on this one (in a few months).
Another stock I traded is GE, the well known US conglomerate which makes things from aircraft engines to trains. I bought it at around 29, and sold it at 32 a few months later (same for OPSW). Today it’s at about 40. The GE stock did not do too much in past four years, the great bull market. But it started to move up lately. Some people argue that when large cap stocks (like GE) move up, we are at the last stage of bull market. Let’s see.
Back to Opsware, it’s Mr. Andreessen’s second baby. It’s not as spectacular as the Netscape IPO, but notheless did bring some values to share holders if they are patient to hold it for 4 years (from $5 to $14). It’s interesting to see the “serial entreprenurs” such as Neil Shen, Ji Qi co-founded Ctrip, Home Inns, and working on the next big idea now. But typically if someone hits something really big, it’s hard to create the “second baby” exceeding the first one. Bill Gates and Jeff Bezo both has one baby: Microsoft and Amazon. Steve Jobs is an exception: he co-founded both Apple and Pixar, the animation company created Toy Stories, and Finding Nemo.