Investors may demand liquidation before money-losing companies with cash run through all their capital. Stockholders have the power to force that, unless there's some two-tier stock deal such as Google and Facebook have, but Twitter does not.
What's the next big thing?
- Self-driving cars that actually work are about three years from commercial deployment. What businesses will be created around that? Automated parking garages? Car-sharing? LIDAR manufacturing?
- In a few months, the Chevy Bolt will be shipping. More charging stations will be needed. Over the next decade, a need for a huge number of charging points will appear. Somebody has to build those.
- Surveillance cameras, including car dashcams, coupled to face recognition and AI. Big Brother where something is always watching. But who? Google? Samsung? ADT? G4S? NSA?
- The blue-sky possibility: Lockheed-Martin's Skunk Works succeeds in building a usable fusion reactor. They're not saying much other than that they've made enough progress to justify investing more of their own funds. The Skunk Works has a good track record of doing things others thought impossible. (The U-2, the SR-71, the F-117, the F-22, and probably some things that haven't been made public yet.) If that works, the world changes in a big way.
Probably not the next big thing:
- Virtual reality. There's still no killer app, and we're into the holiday shopping season. The hardware problem has been solved, and nobody cares. It's the new 3D TV.
- 3D printing. There are lots of good 3D printers, and they're bought by the same people who buy milling machines. They're a useful industrial tool. But home printing? Not happening.
- Internet of Things. It's mostly gimmicks so far. IP-addressable lightbulbs just aren't that useful. There's going to be a lot of crap manufactured, but it may just be a fad like hoverboards and CB radio.
- Hydrogen-powered cars. This is Toyota's answer to electric cars, and they're on sale now in California. They've sold about 700 of them in the US so far.