10 Candidates for Extreme Makeover, Ticker-Edition

Om Malik, Thursday, August 23, 2007 at 4:24 PM PT Comments (27)

Sun Microsystems is changing its ticker symbol from SUNW to JAVA in order to better reflect the company’s role in new network infrastructure, and maybe — just maybe — to give its shares some added juice. (CEO Jonathan Schwartz gives his reasons on his blog.) Here’s 10 companies that we think could use an extreme ticker makeover.

1. Apple (AAPL) to (JOBS) in homage to their feared and revered leader, Steve Jobs.

2. Sprint Nextel (FON) (S) to (XHM) since they are betting the farm on their WiMAX networks.

3. Qualcomm (QCOM) to (MMOB) since almost everyone is suing them, just like the mob back in the 1980s.

4. AT&T (T) to (IFON) because we all know what is juicing their market share and revenues.

5. Yahoo (YHOO) to (NOGO), which is short for Not Google. You could also take it literally.

6. News Corp (NWS) to (TOM) — after all, who doesn’t want to be MySpace Tom’s friend?

7. Motorola (MOT) to (RZR), because they’re hoping for lightning to strike twice.

8. Vonage (VON) to (GON). Yup, the VoIP service providers are falling like flies.

9. Microsoft (MSFT) to (LIVE) on Nasdaq and (WIN) on NYSE. It’s in keeping with their brilliant branding strateg(ies).

10. Viacom (VIA) to (SUX). No commentary needed.

GigaTeam had a fun time brainstorming these, but we’d love your suggestions. Help us out in the comments.

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27 comments so far

August 23rd, 2007
4:51 PM PT
Vishal said:

LOL, that is too funny… what would be the symbol for Facebook if they go IPO ..INF ? - In Your Face ;-)

August 23rd, 2007
4:58 PM PT

GigaOM (TIC Tongue-in-cheek) to GIGO … oh, sorry, that didn’t come out right. [WEG]

August 23rd, 2007
5:04 PM PT
hobnobLover said:

Google (GOOG) to (TUBE).
Adobe (ADBE) to (SWF) or (FLA).

There are still 3:
Baidu, CNET, and EBay, but I can’t come up with new names for them…

August 23rd, 2007
5:06 PM PT
sooth_sayer said:

Alas you are too late in doing this .. 10 years ago I conjured the following for Chrysler purchase by Mercedes.

DUMB - Dodge Und Mercedes Benz
MAD - Mercedes And Dodge
BAD BUM, CUM, PUB .. etc.
This merger did produce nothing positive.

Your list is pretty much on money … except Windows Live is Brain Dead, so I would change the symbol to DEAD as the stock has been for the past 5+ years.

August 23rd, 2007
5:10 PM PT

ON GROKKING SUNW BECOMING JAVA

HEAD-SHAKER Well, Sun Microsystems (aka SUNW on Nasdaq), is renaming itself JAVA, adopting the name as it’s ticker symbol starting Monday. No, it’s not April Fool’s. You can read all about it this incredible move right here on the CEO, Jonathan Schw…

August 23rd, 2007
5:23 PM PT
bob cobb said:

uhh, sprint/nextels ticker is (s)

August 23rd, 2007
5:30 PM PT

VZ -> FIOS (or FIRE)

WPO -> KAPL (most of the money comes from Kaplan, not The Washington Post)

NYT -> ABUT (most of traffic online is about.com)

August 23rd, 2007
5:56 PM PT
Mrinal said:

How about BALLS (Ballmer, S) for Microsoft and LIVE for Google - since LIVE can scrabbled for Google’s favorite word ‘EVIL’ from their co. slogan and would potentially make BALLS implode :)

Great post Om - much needed humor in technology and business!

August 23rd, 2007
8:33 PM PT

[...] CEO Jonathan Schwartz, so leveraging it as a brand makes the business sense. Om Malik ventures into how others can follow. It is all the better for me, the developer and the common man. I am not sure about stock market [...]

August 23rd, 2007
10:11 PM PT

[...] has more fun with corporate restocking strategies: 4. AT&T (T) to (IFON) because we all know what is juicing their market share and [...]

August 24th, 2007
4:50 AM PT

Opening Bell: 8.24.07

Sponsored by Bloomberg.com Gap’s top-to-bottom makeover helps boost 2Q profit 19 percent (AP) Every once in a while, we put on our “retail chain analyst” cap and walk into stores, just to get a feel for how they’re doing. About…

August 24th, 2007
8:59 AM PT

[...] Malik at GigaOm.com suggests ticker changes for ten more technology [...]

August 24th, 2007
9:30 AM PT
Arch Stanton said:

For Alcatel-Lucent, how about YAWN.
Haliburton? PORK
Qualcomm? SUE
SCO? AMF, or SOL, or “”

August 24th, 2007
10:05 AM PT
renatocpn said:

Very good makeups xD

August 24th, 2007
10:22 AM PT
engtech said:

Because nothing helps shake off past history like changing your name every two years.

August 24th, 2007
8:13 PM PT

[...] 10 Candidates for Extreme Makeover, Ticker-Edition Sun Microsystems is changing its ticker symbol from SUNW to JAVA in order to better reflect the company’s role in […] [...]

August 24th, 2007
8:42 PM PT
Jeff Crites said:

Wouldn’t it be cool if the exchanges allowed companies to have ‘throwback’ days, and companies could, for instance, honor a Web 1.0 competitor who bit the dust.

So AMZN could wear the jersey for WEBV (Webvan) for a day, since Bezos is now delivering food. PETM (PetSmart) could be SOCK for a day, to honor the greatest business mascot of all time, the Pets.com sock puppet. And Apple (AAPL) could be IWOZ for a day, a tip of the hat to co-founder Steve Wozniak.

August 26th, 2007
5:29 PM PT

[...] Om and company have quite humorously lampooned SUN’s move to change their stock ticker to JAVA. Here are some of their suggestions: [...]

August 30th, 2007
9:11 AM PT

[...] that Sun has changed their stock ticker from SUNW to JAVA, here’s ten other companies that should change their tickers. By the way, Om was just named one of the 50 most influential Indian Americans. « Digg [...]

August 30th, 2007
10:05 AM PT
Lloyd Budd said:

I think what makes JAVA so special is that it will have such a nice shelf life.

That is a fantastic list!

Mrinal’s BALLS for Microsoft would be awesome!

NEVL for Google for obvious non-evil reason.

News Corp would change their ticker from NWS — boring — to FOX or something else if they could bundle their “news” with the ticker.

August 30th, 2007
8:53 PM PT

[...] 종목 코드 변경 소식을 듣고 GigaOM에서는 Sun Microsystems 외에도 종목 코드를 변경해야 하는 회사 10개를 써 놨는데 그 중 몇 가지를 [...]

August 31st, 2007
3:14 AM PT

[...] 10 Candidates for Extreme Makeover, Ticker-Edition - me: SAP to ABAP [...]

September 1st, 2007
5:31 PM PT

[...] 10 Candidates for Extreme Makeover, Ticker-Edition « GigaOM - Sun Microsystems is changing its ticker symbol from SUNW to JAVA in order to better reflect the company?s role in new network infrastructure. Here?s 10 companies that we think could use an extreme ticker makeover. [...]

September 3rd, 2007
11:28 AM PT

[...] that Sun has changed their stock ticker symbol from SUNW to JAVA, Om Malik suggests ten other companies that should change their tickers. By the way, Om was just named one of the 50 most influential [...]

September 4th, 2007
1:13 PM PT
FFEJ said:

Well, Disney should do something given the contemporary meaning of DIS. Rather then going for the easy plays on Mickey how about PIXR? They could use a little Jobs juice for their stock

September 16th, 2007
12:49 AM PT

[...] that Sun has changed their stock ticker from SUNW to JAVA, here’s ten other companies that should change their tickers. By the way, Om was just named one of the 50 most influential Indian [...]

October 1st, 2007
2:01 AM PT

[...] GigaOM 10 Candidates for Extreme Makeover, Ticker-Edition « [...]

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