6 Stocks That Have Survived Their Industries' Disruption
When Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection in 2012, it was hard to be surprised. By then, film cameras were an analog product in a digital world. And when the same day of reckoning came for Blockbuster Video and for Borders bookstores, the nostalgic among us may have felt a twinge of regret, despite having seen it coming. Of the three, only Kodak still exists or trades publicly, at a penny-stock price of $2 a share.
These companies were disrupted--unseated by forces that made their products or services obsolete. As we've grown more technologically advanced, this sort of disruption has become more common. In 1964, the average tenure for a company in Standard & Poor's 500-stock index--which represents 500 large U.S. firms--was 33 years, according to consulting firm Innosight. By 2016, it was 24 years, and the firm projects it will shrink to 12 years by 2027.
It behooves the long-term investor, then, to choose stocks that are unlikely to
