The Internet Bubble [Hardcover]

Anthony B. Perkins (Author), Michael C. Perkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 18, 2001

The Speculative Market Bubble has Burst -- Where are the Investment Opportunities Now?Two years ago, the first edition of The Internet Bubble forecast the collapse of overvalued technology stocks. Since then, dot-coms have folded, the NASDAQ took a nosedive, and investors have lost billions. Now that ersatz super-companies Amazon, Yahoo, and Cisco have come down to earth, what can investors do?

According to authors Anthony and Michael Perkins, investors shouldn't give up. The Internet and technology revolution is just getting started, they say. New investment opportunities are developing rapidly. The second phase of the Internet -- what the authors call the "Evernet" -- is upon us, and there are gems among the techno-rubble.

In this updated and revised edition of their bestseller, the authors discuss the companies that survived, the few that thrived, and the best bets to become tomorrow's blue chips. They turn their attention to the future of high tech, exploring the fallout -- which isn't over yet -- of the dot-com explosion and predicting where the Web will weave its way next.

With a new introduction and thorough revisions throughout, this is the essential insider's guide to the forces and people who drove the technology stock market past its breaking point and the postburst climate that will reveal the real winners of the high-tech market.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Just as the authors predicted, the Internet bubble has burst. Brothers who founded the business and high-tech magazine Red Herring, they had issued a warning in their prior book, The Internet Bubble: Inside the Overvalued World of High-Tech Stocks and What You Need To Know To Avoid the Coming Shakeout (LJ 11/1/99), which analyzed 133 Internet-related businesses and advised investors who held these stocks to sell. Of course, no one listened. Examining the charts and calculations of the same 133 overvalued companies for this edition, the authors discovered that every company has indeed lost value. Here, they delve deeper into how individual investors lost significant amounts of money, showing that venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, investment bankers, and those who underwrite companies had access to "insider" information and were thus able to capitalize on speculative initial public offerings (IPOs) while pushing unproven companies onto the unsuspecting average retail investor. Despite these findings, the authors remain bullish, arguing that the emergence of new technology has created interesting growth investment opportunities and that the "high-tech industry still has a great future that investors can profit from if they know where to look." Recommended for business collections in public libraries. Bellinda Wise, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, NY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The Perkins brothers, who are the force behind the high-technology business journal Red Herring, have re-tooled The Internet Bubble: Inside the Overvalued World of High-Tech Stocks--and What You Need to Know to Avoid the Coming Shakeout (1999), in which they warned that "every one of the 133 public Internet companies is overvalued" and advised anyone holding any of those stocks that "it's time to sell." Now that all but 10 of those 133 companies have lost significant value, the Perkinses explain how they expect the Internet sector ultimately to recover--this time without the speculative frenzy--and provide performance data and guidelines for determining which companies are poised to rebound. Little has changed, though, in this update on the role that venture capitalists and investment bankers have played on the Internet, the investment risk posed by biotechnology stocks, and the risks of getting caught up in the frenzy of initial public stock offerings. Because of the original accuracy and the timeliness, demand for this revision is guaranteed. David Rouse
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: HarperBusiness; Rev Sub edition (September 18, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0066640016
• ISBN-13: 978-0066640013
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,975,679 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read, November 12, 2001

By 

A reader from Roseville (Roseville, Ca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Internet Bubble (Hardcover)

I have to disagree with the reviewer from Mountain View. Maybe he's in the industry and therefore knows all the inside information that's to be found in this book, but for those of us who are just trying to figure out how best to manage our portfolios, this book is a must.

The Mountain View reviewer says that "much of the book consists of a rehash of familiar and/or obvious information." Well, that information is familiar now precisely because the first edition of Internet Bubble made it so. The Perkins brothers were the first to dissect the financial food chain that
exists between VCs and investment bankers. I read that first edition, and I'm glad I did. It saved me from losing my shirt.

Given their track record, and the fact that I'm still keeping some of my assets in stock, how could I not read the second edition?

As for the Doerr quote, I was frankly amazed to see it, because the Perkins certainly don't treat the guy with kid gloves in the book. Maybe Doerr was just being honest when he called Internet Bubble the best researched book on Silicon Vallley ever. I know I agree.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Silicon Valley Nostradamus's, October 4, 2001

By 

Scott J. Kush (Stanford, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Internet Bubble (Hardcover)

Like clockwork, these two predicted the burst of the 'bubble' with uncanny detail. While we were all drinking from the magic punchbowl, and listening and dancing to the VC and Ibanker 'sirens' and drums...these two sat on the sidelines and held up a big sign that said, "You are punch drunk with internet juice".

Did we listen? Ironically most of us did not, and many even pushed this book away saying 'I don't want to know what's in there'. It is hard to be popular at a raging party by repeatedly saying 'the party ended Saturday night, it is Tuesday morning, why are you all still here?'.

Like the scene from Titanic where a crew member says, 'Haven't you heard, the ship is sinking and there aren't enough life rafts'...these two have now offered you their prophecies again.

Can you afford not to read this one? I know I can't.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Picking up the pieces,or why you should listen to mother, October 18, 2001

By 

Jamis H. Macniven (la honda, ca United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Internet Bubble (Hardcover)

By Jamis MacNiven, Just the pancake guy
I run the lamest bookstore in the world. We have no books and I haven't necessarily read the one I'm reviewing. So what difference does that make? I'll probably outlast Amazon and no one paid any attention to my review of the Internet Bubble in 1999 (at least I didn't) so this is just perfect for our through-the-looking-glass-world of today. OK, maybe I had a peek at the galleys and I can say that The Revised Edition will be an even bigger success then its predecessor. Michael Perkins and his brother Tony are the ultimate insiders as founders of the Red Herring Magazine (the only magazine we carry). These guys simply ran the math and said, in the first edition, (I paraphrase) that we were living in a house of cards so flimsy that when a slight breeze came by the Internet stock market was going to come tumbling down and all the kings horses...
They provided a long list of stocks with the recommendation to sell immediately. I must admit that I was swept away but the promise of unearned riches so I ignored the warning and I was even all set to move my little gray-haired mother into some pretty snappy startups (I had all the hot tips). She was so old fashioned that she decided to buy certificates of deposit, a piece of a Hollywood movie and a trailer park in Santa Barbara. The CD's barely broke 4% and the trailer park moved up smartly but the movie (an embarrassing teen flick) has returned about 250%. And she hasn't even seen the movie! "Is an average net pretax of 140% good?" she asks with a straight face.
The Revised Edition summarizes our fall from grace but also shines light on many new areas of the business from which the next great thing will hopefully emerge.
In Silicon Valley we continue to demonstrate brilliance, toughness and an unquenchable optimism and this means we will learn from the past and keep on creating the future. You would do well to heed the Bubble books and when in doubt, listen to your mother.