The information technology (IT) sector has changed a great deal over the decades. When we think about the 1970s today, we think of old computer games like Pong, while today the sector is associated with smartphones. Yet these popular perceptions do not match the performances of IT stocks over the decades.
The best performer of the 1970s was Avnet, which clocked in a 190% return over the decade – pretty meagre by today’s standards. Many would find it hard to identify Avnet or what the company does today, but it is a distributor of electrical components with a storied history going back to the early 1920s. In the 1970s, Avnet partnered with the now better known Intel to supply computer peripherals and software.
The second-best performing tech stock of the decade was Hewlett-Packard (HP), a much more recognisable household name. HP produced a return of just over 167% over the decade. The company was supplying what were then called computers, but what today would be more recognisable as advanced calculators and advanced products for scientific research. HP was so focused on business and scientific products in the 1970s that when Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak offered them the results of his research on the Apple I personal computer, they turned him down five times, prompting him to start his own company with Steve Jobs.
A lot changed in the 1980s, both in terms of technology and stock returns. It is the 1980s that many of us associate with the emergence of the computer as we now know it; but this is not reflected in the
