2009: The Year In Tech

Welcome to week 72 of my stock-picking throwdown with Mr. Market. Let's get right to the numbers:

Source: Yahoo! Finance.
*Tracking began on Aug. 7, 2008.
**Adjusted for dividends and other returns of capital.

And here's how the portfolio did during 2009:

Source: Yahoo! Finance.
*Tracking began on Jan. 2, 2009.
**Adjusted for dividends and other returns of capital.

The year in tech
What was this year's biggest tech story? My vote goes to Twitter. In September, the microblogger confirmed that it had received $100 million in new funding at a $1 billion valuation, confirming a prediction I had made in February.

Yet as much as Twitter dominated 2009's headlines, there was plenty of other big tech news. Here are a few more of the year's notable stories, listed in no particular order:

• Microsoft introduces Windows 7 in hopes of erasing the memory of Vista. XP, meanwhile, lives on.
• Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ:SIRI) survives bankruptcy and introduces a not-terribly interesting iPhone app.
• Smartphones prove to be the Next Big Thing as the App Store attracts 100,000 apps, Motorola introduces Droid to industrywide fanfare, and Palm resuscitates itself with the Pre. AT&T and Verizon, meanwhile, get in a spat over which of them has the better 3G network.
• Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) introduces Chrome OS and hires former Microsoftie Don Dodge to sell developers on its vision for Web-based software.
• The Big G also swipes $1.5 billion from investors via an evil stock-option repricing plan that was supposed to cost $460 million.
• Cisco acts like it's Black Friday all year, acquiring seven companies, including Tandberg for $3.4 billion, Starent Networks for $2.9 billion, and ScanSafe for $183 million.
• Oracle commits $7.4 billion to acquire Sun Microsystems, but is initially rebuffed by the European Commission. Only now have signs emerged that the deal will gain approval.
• Facebook more than doubles in size, but then gets saddled with a valuation astronomical enough to raise doubts about its ability to go public in 2010, just as the IPO market is beginning to thaw.
• Finally, Steve Jobs returns to work at Apple, after enduring a liver transplant that the board fails to disclose to investors. Debate rages over Apple's ethically questionable governance policies.

And that's just the short list. I could also mention the arm-waving over Apple's so-called iTablet, or the emergence of Web video, or the rise of netbooks, or Mr. Softy's plan to open retail stores. The tech landscape shifted like sand in 2009, and it should continue shifting next year.

That's why patience and diversification are the keys to tech investing gains. Look at David Gardner. He produced a decade of 20% returns in the real-money Rule Breaker portfolio by betting on a broad portfolio of innovators, and holding for the long-term. Tom Gardner's "simpleton portfolio" was also a 10-year winner. I believe that, with my tech portfolio, I will achieve similar success.

There's your year in tech, Fools. See you back next week to kick off the 2010 edition of my e-portfolio. Happy New Year!

Get your clicks with more techie Foolishness:

• Which tech stock got your vote for the best of 2010?
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• Will this car company run Sirius XM off the road?