Tech's Pioneers Have Been Left Behind. Their Stocks Are Cheap--and Complicated.

Cisco Systems (ticker: CSCO), IBM (IBM), Intel (INTC), Oracle (ORCL), Seagate Technology (STX), Western Digital (WDC), Xerox Holdings (XRX), HP Inc. (HPQ), and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) still employ a total of 900,000 people. They account for $363 billion in annual revenue and $840 billion in stock market value. But their sales, accounting for inflation, are mostly going in reverse. The best of the bunch, Western Digital, is forecast to grow 4.4% next year. Xerox, the worst, is likely to see a 4.7% decline. Wall Street bankers have begun to mount a rescue effort.