Adjusted for Reality, Neither Rackspace Nor Equinix Shine

We learned during the dot-com boom, and the subsequent bust, that it takes real money to build the Internet, meaning that the growth of online advertising, e-commerce, social networking, and all the rest doesn’t offer a magic formula for profit.

But investors in recent years found a solution they like, plowing money into real-estate investment trusts that own the buildings housing the server computers that run websites. REITs pay out 90% of their pre-tax income in the form of dividends. So, despite heavy expenses on land and property, many investors consider it sort of a sure thing that these outfits will continually lever up and return money to shareholders.

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About Voices

Along with original content and posts from across the Dow Jones network, this section of AllThingsD includes Must-Reads From Other Websites — pieces we’ve read, discussions we’ve followed, stuff we like. Six posts from external sites are included here each weekday, but we only run the headlines. We link to the original sites for the rest. These posts are explicitly labeled, so it’s clear that the content comes from other websites, and for clarity’s sake, all outside posts run against a pink background.

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