Internet Bubble, The

Canals. Railroads. Automobiles. Computers. The Internet. Each represented revolutionary shifts in the way Americans would live and do business. Each saw a corresponding rush of investors to get in on this great new investment opportunity. Each saw a lot of investors go broke. In The Internet Bubble, Anthony Perkins and Michael Perkins, founding editors of The Red Herring, look at it this way: In the early 20th century, there were more than 500 automobile companies in the U.S. Now how many are there? Same with the new Internet companies, the Perkinses predict. A few will grow into profitable businesses in 10 or 20 years, but even then, their stocks may not be worth much more than their 1999 prices. They argue that buying an Internet stock today is really nothing more than gambling that someone else will come along and buy it from you for more money.

The book includes an overview of the biggest players in the Internet explosion, the market mania for Internet stocks, and profiles of companies such as Amazon.com, Yahoo! and At Home. The authors also interview venture capitalists who help new companies get off the ground and the investment bankers who help them go public. And while they don't pretend that they know when the Internet bubble will burst, or what the damage will be, they are convinced that most .com companies will never make a dime. The book concludes with some thoughts about investing in this climate, and argues that ignoring the Internet may be as dangerous to your portfolio as investing too much. Some guidelines about product cycles and diversification appear, but the biggest rule seems to be: Don't be the one holding the hot potato at the end of the game. --Lou Schuler