Reflecting on the recent FIS and Fiserv acquisitions and the enormity of these companies now! Then I reflected on Microsoft and the fact that both will still have less than 10% of its market cap after the acquisitions.
30 years ago, most people didn’t know what software was – IBM a hardware company was the closest thing but still not mainstream.
I can’t believe I stumbled into this business back then selling online cash managment software (commercial online banking). Sure – I didn’t exactly stumble into software, Microsoft IPO was only a few years before and I tried to be a programmer and decided I was better at selling it. Heck, I started college with a typewriter and finished in a computer lab writing my term papers with Wordstar. I stumbled into banking software. Glad it did. I learned new things, found mentors, grew up.
Who’s stumbling in the right field now? I’m talking one for the next thirty years. Is it possible? Will FIS and Fiserv be worth $1 Trillion? Blockchain trade finance or AI driven personal finance? That’s already here. Maybe Quantum computing consortiums in space? Augmented reality chip software in our brains?