An Easy-Come, Easy-Go World

Once hot personal computer firms lose out as IBM wins more of the market

In the frenetic and ferocious world of personal computers, everything happens at hyperspeed. The machines operate in microseconds, and success or failure for a personal-computer manufacturer sometimes seems almost as rapid. More companies, new machines and a fresh crop of millionaires appear regularly. Last week Andrew Kay of Kaypro became the latest company founder to cash in, when he made an estimated $245 million on paper from the initial public offering of his company's stock. More than 200 American companies...

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