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April 13, 2004
Cops Close In On Computer Associates
Posted by Dana Blankenhorn
I've always had a funny feeling about Computer Associates. (The picture is from a 2003 CNN story on the company.)
The company is a classic roll-up, essentially a melange of old products from other companies. This can work in some businesses like funeral homes and restaurants. I've never seen it win long-term success in technology. Yet CA seems to stay up nicely, growing year-by-year, defying the laws of financial gravity.
It could be something is rotten in the state of New York, city of Islandia, county of Suffolk.
Critics, many of them former employees, have long alleged that accounting, not innovation, was keeping profits and the stock price high. Now the government has guilty pleas from three former executives, including a one-time Chief Financial Officer, and appear to be taking aim at top management.
It really doesn't thrill me when my suspicions turn out to be right.
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Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for over 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the "Interactive Age Daily" for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age, and dozens of other publications over the years.
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