Investors in technology need to pay attention to corporate governance

EVERY BUSINESS cycle, as it runs out of puff, reveals problems that seem obvious in hindsight. Twenty years ago, when stockmarkets slumped, accounting frauds came to light at Enron, an energy-trading firm, and WorldCom, a telecoms outfit. Less spectacular were the revelations that many companies had cut corners or behaved recklessly. The actions of titanic bosses ruling over General Electric and Vivendi, a French media group, ended up hobbling them for decades. After 2008, the emperors of Wall Street were revealed to be wearing no clothes, with Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and others collapsing under the weight of huge losses—and their bosses’ giant egos.