Lost tech in acquiring tech list

[counting]

Before trying to research a new tech - Smartphone, I checked the CEO office to see if I can acquire this tech or not. and by my surprise it is listed in the technology lists, however, there's no company that I can acquired it from. So I went back to check the message, and found out a while ago someone did invent this tech, but had gone bankrupt since. Hence Smartphone tech was lost along with it, only a blank list left as a reminder of its ghost.