Degradation of economy likely due to housing bubble bursting, tech companies had little to do with it, yet were happy to capitalize off of it. The financial crisis of 2008 caused a sharp decline in spending almost worldwide (Grigor & Salikhov, 2009). Caused general loss of trust in companies and corporations, especially in countries like the United States (Grigor & Salikhov, 2009). Technology companies were able to capitalize on these fears by offering improved technology and offering superior value, in the case of Apple and Google. DOW Jones Average decreased to 6,600, from 14,000 in 2007 (Grigor & Salikhov, 2009). Created a rift between the wealthy and the poor, largely eliminating the middle class, which caused grim outlooks for tech companies (Grigor & Salikhov, 2009). Low economic growth forced many companies to stop innovating, which is especially lethal for technology companies (Grigor & Salikhov, 2009).
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