Diversification trumps innovation at encom

From Tron

[edit] Diversification Trumps Innovation at EnCom

STAFF WRITER

The doubters were legion. They said Encom was dead in the water,a sure case of Chapter 11....

...And then the stock price kept rising.

Kevin Flynn dropped off the face of the earth almost seven years ago. Search parties were formed. Rivers and lakes were dredged in hopes of reclaiming his body. Not a trace of Encom's in-house genius could be found...

...And still, the stock price kept rising.

How is it that a company built on bold new ideas could survive the loss of its visionary creative leader?

Flynn invented classic video games such as Matrix Blaster, Vice Squad and Space Paranoids, not to mention the top-selling title of the mid-80's: Tron.

Since his infamous departure, no one has filled the void, but the Encom Corporation has subsisted on a backlog of ideas, sketches, and programs rifled from Flynn's personal files.

When CEO Alan Bradley stepped down in protest of this practice - what he characterized as "grave robbing" - skeptics again theorized that it would be the end of Encom.

So why does the stock price continue to rise?

The key is diversification.

Encom has entrenched itself into every platform imaginable. They have transcended the tired old model of video arcades and found their way into millions of gamer's homes and offices.

We never would have thought that we'd be saying this so late in the game, but the future looks bright for Encom and its shareholders.

NOTE: The article directly below it, which has the title "Disaster Awaits", is almost a verbatim copy of text from the Wikipedia entry for the 1996 Everest disaster, which is real life event that occurred two weeks after the date of the article. The date was removed from the article copy because of the anachronism.

Shortly after midnight on May 10, 1996, the Adventure Consultants expedition began a summit attempt from Camp IV, atop the South Col (7,900 m/25,900 ft). They were joined by six client climbers, three guides and Sherpas from Scott Fischer's Mountain Madness company, as well as an expedition sponsored by the government of Taiwan.