1/ Washington Post
In 2000, the company spent about $125 million developing Kaplan, online education and Washingtonpost.com.
Kaplan became a success.
Kaplan revenue grew roughly 76% in two years, while it swung from a meaningful loss to profitability. Test preparation benefited as the weak job market sent more people back to graduate school, while Kaplan Higher Education produced record enrollment, revenue and operating income.
2/ H&R Block
Core tax business is a recurring, mostly cash-paid service that was largely insensitive to technology spending or stock-market valuations.
H&R Block owned Option One, a large non-prime mortgage originator. As the Federal Reserve cut rates following the dot-com collapse, refinancing activity surged. << an early subprime-housing trade
3/ Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo surged in 2000 as money rotated away from expensive technology stocks toward reasonably valued, profitable financial companies. Even after its 20% decline in 2001, an investor entering at the end of 1999 still made roughly 24% through 2002, versus a 38% loss for the S&P 500.
Its underlying banking businesses also remained healthy: Wells Fargo reported growing net interest income and improving earnings in parts of its business during 2002.