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Historical Investment Case Studies

Coca-Cola, Apple, Amex, Kodak, Nokia: the great compounders and the great failures, and what each one teaches.

The best lessons are already written in the tape. These case studies revisit the great compounders and the great failures, Coca-Cola and Kodak, Visa and Nokia, and pull out what each one teaches an investor deciding what to own today.

11 articles in this module

Why Buffett Bought Coca-Cola

Why Buffett bought Coca-Cola after the 1987 crash: a brand moat, a long international runway, and a fair price for a wonderful business. The value lesson explained.7 min read

Why Buffett Invested in Apple

Why Buffett invested in Apple after decades of avoiding tech: he reframed it as a consumer franchise, and buybacks grew the stake. A circle-of-competence lesson.7 min read

The American Express Story

The American Express story: how a 1963 fraud scandal crushed the stock, and why Buffett bet big on an unbroken franchise. Panic versus real damage.7 min read

Costco as a Long-Term Compounder

Costco as a long-term compounder: decades of a quiet membership flywheel turning small annual gains into a giant. Why boring consistency beats drama.7 min read

Visa's Global Network: Built to Compound

How Visa's global network grew from a bank consortium to a record 2008 IPO to worldwide payment rails, and why network effects compound for decades.8 min read

Amazon's Evolution

Amazon's evolution from online bookstore to everything store to AWS, and two decades of reinvesting instead of reporting profit. How to read a reported loss.7 min read

Nvidia's Growth Journey

Nvidia's growth journey from gaming GPUs to the CUDA bet to the AI boom, with near-death moments along the way. On platform optionality and hindsight.7 min read

Why Kodak Failed

Why Kodak failed: it invented the digital camera in 1975, then buried it to protect film profits, and went bankrupt in 2012. The innovator's dilemma explained.8 min read

Why Blockbuster Failed

Why Blockbuster failed: it leaned on late fees, passed on buying Netflix for about $50M, and lost to streaming. How your best revenue line can kill you.8 min read

The Rise and Fall of Nokia

The rise and fall of Nokia: from 40 percent of the phone market to losing a smartphone war it did not see as a software fight. Why tech moats are provisional.7 min read

BlackBerry Lessons for Investors

BlackBerry lessons for investors: how enterprise lock-in that looked unbreakable evaporated when consumers picked the phones. On the wrong switching costs.7 min read
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Data from Intrinio and Financial Modeling Prep.