More signs of maturity for tech

(By Richard Holway 6.00pm 29th March 09) In my Laughing all the way to the…SITS company? piece last week, I made reference to the ‘maturity’ of IT companies with particular reference to the growing numbers that were now paying quite decent dividends. This was occasioned by Oracle’s decision to pay its first dividend since its 1986 IPO.

I was therefore intrigued to notice another example of tech’s growing maturity as (according to Reuters) Google, Cisco, and Apple are among the names being considered for possible inclusion in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The Dow, which serves as an indicator of the stock market by tracking the stock prices of just 30 of the largest, most widely held companies, has lost 25% of its value so far this year, prompting calls for changes in the companies it tracks. Citigroup and General Motors are two of the companies that will likely be removed from the Dow, as their stock prices have slumped.