interesting 3d cad program

Tektronix is and always has been primarily a maker of electronic instrumentation, especially oscilloscopes. The display terminal business was a logical development of that expertise but they were never dependent on it for their existence and when it ceased to be profitable they pulled the plug on it and continued with their core business. They got bought out by Danaher a few years back and then got spun off last year as part of Fortive, which also includes Fluke and Matco Tools among others.

If only I'd bought a thousand shares of DELL at the initial offering!

Dave in SoTex

Tektronix got into the display market because it was a natural extension of its oscilloscope market (at which it once dominated). The monocrome (green) vector storage monitor was its first entry, IIRC. They were really big into storage tubes for their oscilloscope market so it was a natural extension into the computer graphics market. Their business model didn't allow them to compete once the raster graphics market took off (memory got cheap).

Better than buying high and selling low. ;-)

It really wasn't hard to see coming. They were a one trick pony that couldn't adapt, much like DEC. Even IBM had it's near-death experience (I was there through that period and it wasn't pretty) but had the resources to blunder through the rapid market change(s).

Or McDondalds Or Berkshire Hathaway ;-)

Gets one to thinking, and I just learned that Dell is no longer public, it went private again in 2013.

So, what areas do you like in 2017?

Huh? Don't understand the question.

Is there an industry, or a company in particular, that you consider a great investment opportunity now? By the way, I got out of Sun just in the nick of time! Sears too. I would have gotten burned by DEC too if I had thought about it. Yes, I'm a "bargain hunter"... I did have a couple of reasonable trades with Office Depot--I doubt I would try to same play today. I'm always willing to listen to possibilities. Since you are a visionary, I thought you might have a suggestion.

No. The market is too confused. For the last 25 years, the government has done it's best to turn logic upside down.

Matresses.

Mattresses are one of the few guaranteed investments these days.

Guaranteed to lose spending power over time.