What are your views on the Internet industry darlings who have fallen from grace ? One day they're trailblazing
super humans and the next portrayed as naieve and foolish.

Should the press get some reality in to this equation ? It was after all the media which built up these people......

You've got to admit that a certain German software house which advertises on TV - plays on the paraoia around Internet companies... and probably adds to it !

On 18:36:31 24 November 2000 ashley wrote:
>That's a much bigger question than just the internet...
>That's the whole press / privacy / morals kind of
>question. Princess Diana springs to mind - did the press
>kill her etc. etc.?
>
>Unfortunately us consumers seem to be such that things
>merely being normal, or the same over time, is of little
>interest. It isn't news. The internet daahlings were
>interesting on their way up (how we envied them...) and
>are interesting on the way down (schadenfreude...). That's
>life.
>
>I suspect in general that people feel very little
>compassion for the internet daahlings. They'll have to
>suffer a lot more yet before public compassion swings
>their way.
>
>If you ask me, most internet daahlings took the route that
>they did in the pursuit of freedom - freedom from their
>existing jobs, freedom to do things the way they've always
>wanted, the freedom that would come of making huge amounts
>of money. And who can blame them? The aspiration is
>clearly attractive. It's just that reality says otherwise.
>Reality says that a business that will always make less
>money than it costs to run is unlikely to succeed in the
>long term. Of course reality took a while to settle in,
>but those chill winds are certainly blowing now...
>
>These daahlings have left their legacy, however. I think
>that the internet daahlings (and to some degree the
>internet itself) are merely the burning vanguard of a more
>general sociological shift which, at the very least, has
>manifested itself as 'dress down Friday' in the City or
>recent advertising by behemoths such as IBM and PWC trying
>to portray themselves as a cool 'internet-y' kinda places
>to work. Most amusing.
>
>Enough ramblings for the end of the week....

Agree completely... a recent function at a major investment bank sums it up..... all the employees (who'd
invited us down to get a chat with 'real' Internet people)
talked amongst themeselves and belittled anyone they considered not of their greater than holy social standing..... doubtless these people will have lost and be losing lots of their employer's and investors' money - but I imagine quite amazingly getting away with it....
anyway a tip I picked up on the night... e b2b exchanges
and infrastructure are a great bet.... only JOKING - like a hole in the head - investment guys can't you see a good business that will make it regardless of your colleagues' investment trends ? Oh sorry that's probably why you work in cosy - distant from the real world investment banks and will probably stay their until you retire !!

On 17:9:25 25 November 2000 paul wrote:
>Continuing the ranting.....No doubt many of them have been
>naiive and foolish but they have often paid the price.
>More annoying are the analysts, often naive, foolish and
>never less than sheeplike. These are the people who
>predict, get it wrong and only then downgrade their
>predictions. What a job: you fail, others lose, you try
>again.
>
>Naiive chancers, they do not need to know the business in
>any depth. They remind me of the betting tipsters who tip
>one team to half their customers and the opponents to the
>other half, all they need do is find customers to replace
>50% and hey presto! a tidy profit
>