1 Thing Everyone Gets Wrong About Iron Mountain
Anyone who has dumped some old "stuff" into a self-storage facility knows how useful it can be to find a new long-term home for things you just can't get rid of yet. That's the basic business model that Iron Mountain (NYSE: IRM) has long followed, only on the business side of things. While most investors are focused on the real estate investment trust's (REIT's) digital makeover, it's important to keep an eye on its past, too. Here's one thing that way too many people overlook.
While you might put some old tchotchke from high school into long-term storage, the main thing that businesses dumped into Iron Mountain's storage facilities was paper. The REIT offers other types of storage, like for high-end art, but it deals in paper by and large. Paper storage was a wonderful and reliable business for years, thanks to regulations regarding how long important legal and financial documents have to be retained.
Image source: Getty Images.
Source Fool.com
