what is the technology media and telecom tmt sector 
the technology media and telecom tmt sector is an industry grouping that includes the majority of companies focused on new technologies there is a substantial overlap between tmt and the 1990s idea of the new economy the tmt sector is sometimes also referred to as technology media and communications tmc the technology sector can no longer hold all the firms that depend on innovation because the role of technology in the economy has expanded for example meta meta formerly facebook and netflix nflx are both in the communication services select sector spdr fund xlc rather than the technology select sector spdr fund xlk 12 big tech companies increasingly dominate the tmt sector understanding the tmt sectorthe tmt sector includes a wide range of companies that depend on research development r d they focus on patents and other intellectual property and prefer rapid company growth as a result investors in the tmt sector often tolerate relatively high price to earnings p e ratios in favor of enterprise value to sales ev sales the tmt sector is beneficial to growth investors looking for potential tenbaggers that will dramatically outperform the market new technologies are continually developed in the tmt sector and some companies may eventually become big names in the sector by getting in early on stocks in the tmt industry growth investors hope to achieve higher returns many tmt stocks have high potential to outperform the market but they also face greater downside risks special considerationsbecause this industry segment covers a broad range it is often helpful to divide tmt into subsectors such as hardware semiconductors software media and telecom the tmt sector contains new and hi tech firms so it experiences many mergers acquisitions and initial public offerings ipos each subsector also has different growth metrics and prospects for example the telecom sector is driven by the shift toward wireless the hardware companies include computer makers ibm dell and hp but also makers of server systems mobile device handsets tablets and storage devices such as hard drives and memory within hardware semiconductor manufacturers develop and produce integrated circuits and microchips used in all sorts of applications some representative firms include intel amd texas instruments and nvidia software companies produce computer or mobile applications for both individuals and enterprises microsoft adobe and sap rank among the top software firms furthermore media and telecom companies also play essential parts in the tmt sector media firms develop produce and distribute multimedia content on tv in print and online television networks cable tv providers production studios and social media companies are all in this subsector finally telecom focuses on communications related businesses such as phone tv and internet service providers there are several significant telecoms such as at t and verizon that dominate the industry examples of technology media and telecom sectormarket participants may categorize tmt companies in different subsectors so there are many examples of companies in multiple tmt subsectors meta may be viewed as either an internet company or a media company apple can be placed in the internet hardware software or media category depending on who is judging the company other examples that cross subsectors are hulu amazon and netflix sometimes companies in one subsector of tmt will merge or acquire another to consolidate diversify and broaden product offerings examples of mergers include the aol and time warner merger in 2000 in 2015 at t and directv joined forces while the dell emc merger happened in 2016 34