Gannon On Investing

MSFT

You can drink water instead of Coke, buy Whirlpool washers instead of GE, get financed at Citi instead of GE, but you can't run a business without using MSFT products.

Thanks for voting, GroovyStocks.

The tally has been updated to reflect your vote. MSFT and GE are now tied. Coke is falling behind.

Coca Cola

people love the coke moat - few try to cross it. competitors havn'e crossed it effectively in a hundred years (Pepsi isn't anyone's favorite)
look at the Sunday ads - GE products are sold based on price - not by virtue of a moat. look at the computer mags, no one likes msft - it constantly annoys it's users.

it's KO for sure.

MSFT is the only monopolist on the list; by definition they have the widest moat.

Thanks for the last two votes. The tally has been updated:

Microsoft (5)

General Electric (4)

Coke (3)

*And Pepsi is my favorite (but doesn't have Coke's moat).

GE doesn't have a wide moat; too many different subsidiaries and way too big to be able to say they have a moat.

Buffett and Munger think Coke has the biggest - I agree with them.

BTW Pepsi is my whole family's fav ;-)

Thanks for voting Mike.

The tally has been updated to reflect your vote:

Microsoft (5)

General Electric (4)

Coca-Cola (4)

I have to go with Microsoft on this one. Any time the government tries to split you up because you resemble a monopoly, you have a pretty nice sized moat I would say.

Initially I was going for GE, but the more I think about it,
it seems that Coke has the greatest franchise. GE makes , markets and services great products, but I'm not sure many people buy their products because they are made by GE. (By "people" I mean the average consumer. Aerospace and medical customers may be different.) Their products are extremely capital intensive, which in itself creates a moat, but one which must be shored up with capital constantly.
Coke, on the other hand, has a product which no one needs, but many want, and which many display a strong preference for. It is more like cigarettes in this way. In my younger days I was addicted (habituated is more precise) to Coke. I drank a quart every day. This is a wide and deep moat for sugar water. It is unbelievable! The main competition is from Pepsi, which with it's Frit-Lay division, is the only real threat to Coke. And Pepsi has no international distribution to match Coke.
I believe that Coke has the moat and it is theirs to lose. I'll admit that they have been trying over the last 10 years, but I think they may be waking up some. I didn't mention MSFT because I don't think it's worth mentioning. A great company with a moat more fragile than most would like to believe.

Thanks for the last two votes. The tally has been updated:

Microsoft (6)

Coca-Cola (5)

General Electric (4)

If there are no more votes in the next 35 minutes, Microsoft will win the contest.