With the Nasdaq surpassing 5,000 for the first time in precisely 15 years, many are looking back to the dot-com bubble and comparing the two markets. Will we experience another crash similar to what happened between 1999 and 2001? Some analysts say it won’t happen, while others believe a collapse is imminent.
We look back at 10 of the biggest failures originating from the dot-com bubble, an era of cheap money, heavy speculation, financial collapses and money printing (much like what’s going on today).
Pets.com
The sock puppet company started at $11 per share and rose to $14. It quickly tumbled to under $1 and lost $147 million in the first nine months of 2000. Pets.com is now owned by Pets Mart.
Webvan.com
The grocery delivery service industry grew too fast. Webvan.com raised $375 million from investors, its shares traded at $30 and it was valued at $1.2 billion. Two years later, its stock fell to a minuscule six cents. The domain is now owned by Amazon.
eToys.com
The online toy retailer’s stock closed as high as $76 before crashing to the pit of obscurity. The website returned and is still selling kids’ toys.
GeoCities
Yahoo bought GeoCities, a web hosting service, for $3.6 billion in 1999; it closed down in 2009
TheGlobe.com
It was one of the first social media websites that dated back to 1995. It was immensely popular and its stock soared 600 percent in its first day of trading. In fact, its stock rose as high as $97 before crashing to under $1 less than two years later. The domain is still around and the opening page explains the company’s history.
Go.com
Disney set up Go.com to compete with the likes of AOL and Yahoo. Due to the fact that it restricted adult content, the website closed in 2001 and was a $790 million write-off. Go.com returned and Disney uses it for interactive media.
Flooz.com
It sold online currency so consumers could use it instead of credit cards. It generated $35 million in funds from investors, but went bankrupt in summer of 2001. This domain remains for sale.
DrKoop.com
The website was similar to WebMD and was co-founded by Reagan administration Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop. It raked in an initial public offering (IPO) of $88.5 million and its stock hit a high of $45.75 per share. It began to shed tens of millions of dollars each quarter in 2000 and closed its web portal doors in late 2001.
Kozmo.com
A delivery service that was believed to rival the likes of FedEx and UPS, but without a minimum purchase and offering free one-hour delivery prompted the company to shut down. According to reports, the company is attempting to make a comeback. The website just has Kozmo.com on the front page.
Robert Nebel says
Dot.com, to me is the problem. The average American today has a hard time cooking a hotdog. If they can not find it “On-line”, it must not be available. My philosophy on money and making money is much the same as Warren Buffet. “If ou can not hold it in your hand or touch it, or eat it, then I don’t want to know about it.” People seem to want to believe that in the future (today), that you all can have a place to live, food to eat, money to go where you want, when you want, free medical/dental, etc.,etc.,etc., and only have 15% of the worlds population working?
Look at the 100’s of billion of dollars wasted on NOTHING! Some bull shit way of making peoples lives easier. People lives do not need to get any easier. How many people saw the movie WALL-E, about the robot here on earth by itself, because the humans had been using earth as a garbage dump and had become so lazy and unfit, that they had to roll abound on special vehicles because they could no longer walk. WHERE DO THEY MAKE THE MONEY TO EXIST ON?!!!!! We as a world, can not continue to loss jobs and decrease positions at the same time, with a population growing at extremely high numbers.What happens? As with any other animal on the face of this planet. “The Strong Survive and the Week Die”. 85% of the people in the US today under 40, stand about as much a chance of survival as an ant against your foot.