Apple, Google, Microsoft/Facebook, and Amazon.
Techcrunch wrote that the four horsemen of the web were Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Groupon and that they were positioned as the best positioned to capture the estimated $20 billion in pent-up consumer marketing dollars
How things move on. In the new world scenario, there are really 4 horsemen of tech/mobile: Apple, Google, Microsoft/Facebook, and Amazon, but this time, the game is about patents, not pent-up consumer marketing.
Forbes claim Facebook needs patents, as it only has 160. Of course, that is why Google bought Motorola. Even Yahoo has 3300 patents.
Last year, consumer marketing; this year, patents. Investors appear to love patents. They should prefer consumers – they are harder to acquire and keep loyal! Yahoo still has them in drove – in fact, 700m of them per month. Which would you prefer: patents that you can (maybe) earn money in the courts – or real paying customers??