IP: Internet bubble popping American business ethics

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> From: "the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow" <geoff () iconia com>
> To: "Dave e-mail pamphleteer Farber" <farber () cis upenn edu>
>
> http://www.redherring.com/insider/1999/1001/news-getrich.html
>
> Internet bubble popping American business ethics?
> By Sarah Lai Stirland
> Redherring.com
> October 1, 1999
>
> As the world marvels at the "GetRichQuick.com" phenomenon in the 
> United States,
> fewer people notice how the get-rich-quick mentality is wreaking havoc on
> American business, according to prominent venture capitalists.
>
> "What you're talking about really is a disease that's eating this whole
> industry at it's heart," says Richard M. Burnes Jr., a co-founder of Charles
> River Ventures. Mr. Burnes has been a venture capitalist for almost 40 years.
>
> That disease is the desire to found a dot-com business, take it public, and
> then take the money and run.
>
> ...
>
> Both start-ups and corporate America are already suffering from this
> get-rich-quick mentality, observe other veteran venture capitalists.
>
> An unspecified Menlo-Park, California-based start-up funded by 
> Highland Capital
> Partners has recently experienced a turnover rate of 150 percent, says Dan
> Nova, a Highland Capital managing general partner.
>
> <snip>
>
> http://www.redherring.com/mag/issue70/news-angler.html
>
> The angler
> Our advice to Internet company investors: Sell now!
> By Anthony B. Perkins
> Red Herring magazine
>  >From the September 1999 issue
>
> With a little math help from the Internet-industry guru Bill Gurley of
> Benchmark Capital, and the number-crunching expertise of Broadview
> International's team of financial analysts, I believe we are the first to take
> a comprehensive swipe at calculating the size of the Internet stock 
> bubble. And
> the bottom line to our analysis is very simple: with very few 
> exceptions, every
> one of the 133 public Internet companies we have included in our Internet
> Bubble portfolio is overvalued. Our advice to Internet investors is equally
> simple: if you hold any of these stocks, it's time to sell.
>
> As we write these words, we can already hear the screams. Your highest-pitched
> jeers will accuse us of being Internet-industry naysayers, unbelievers in the
> "new economy," and downright traitors to our hometown here in Silicon Valley.
> And believe us, we feel your pain. The Internet boom has created billions in
> new -- largely paper -- wealth for thousands of entrepreneurs and 
> investors, so
> why stop the party now?
>
> Well, we hate being party poopers, but it's time to step out of the Internet
> reality-distortion field and sober up a little. It's time to discern what's
> real and what's fluff. And it's time to take action on what we know 
> to be true.
>
> <snip>
>
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> Geoff_Goodfellow () iconia com, Prague CZ * tel/mobil +420 (0)603 706 558
> "Success is getting what you want & happiness is wanting what you get"
> http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/01/biztech/articles/17drop.html