My Dumbest Investment
Left Oracle Behind

Back in the early 1970s, I bought shares of a small company called Frontier Electric, as it was local and seemed to be expanding every day. Years later, I heard that the firm had been bought by another company. Since I'd never heard of the acquirer, some new upstart, I sold my stake in it. That company was Oracle. As they say, the rest is history (which was made without me).

- Harry, San Mateo, Calif.

The Fool Responds: Ouch. Oracle went public in 1986, and in a little over 21 years, its shares have increased in value more than 100-fold. Still, it would have been hard to know in 1986 how the company would ultimately do. If a holding of yours is acquired and you end up owning a company new to you, look into it closely. Some mergers and acquisitions make a lot of sense and add value. Others, such as Time Warner's merger with America Online, have yet to make shareholders rich. (In fact, there's now talk that Time Warner may spin off AOL.) ¦

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