Billionaire technocrat Paul Allen wants to build companies that promote his vision of a "wired world," but the sour economy has pulled the plug on many of his investments.
Several of the Microsoft co-founder's high-profile ventures have folded or declared bankruptcy during the past two years, including Metricom and Mercata. Others, such as Charter Communications and Residential Communications Network (RCN), have cost Allen millions of dollars as the stock prices declined precipitously.
The failures have caused some investors to question the trend-spotting and moneymaking abilities of Allen, who started Seattle-based venture capital firm Vulcan Ventures and ranked as one of the four richest people in the world in the late 1990s. They say Allen's days as the de facto soothsayer of technology investing could be numbered.
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