Internet Bubble, The

The spectacular bull market in high-tech stocks is the investment story of the decade.

The numbers are astonishing. The Internet boom has created new household names such as Yahoo, Amazon, and America Online -- companies that today command billions in market value. Internet startups like Healtheon and eBay have seen their stocks skyrocket over 3000 percent since their IPOs, and dozens of other Internet stocks have doubled, tripled, and even quadrupled on their first day of trading.

Here is a market where:

- Entrepreneurs like the thirty-something founders of Yahoo and Amazon become global billionaires overnight;
- Money-losing startups command market valuations that make the captains of traditional industry cry their hearts out and tremble with competitive fear;
- And venture capitalists and investment bankers cash in big on companies barely out of the cradle.

But individual retail investors -- the outsiders in this turn of the century roulette game -- are left to foot the bill, paying exorbitant prices for stocks that will end up diving off a cliff.

The Internet Bubble is the story of the turbulent world of high-tech stocks, a place where fortunes are made and lost in a day. This book uncovers the inner workings of an industry that increasingly thrives on greed and hype. It shows who is really getting rich, and how they use small investors to finance their empires.

Silicon Valley insiders Anthony and Michael Perkins provide a behind-the-scenes look at the forces -- and the people -- stoking the money engine in the technology stock market. They show how the allure of fast-paced innovation and overnight success has driven an ongoing market frenzy around Internet stocks, creating what they call an "Internet Bubble." Most important, the authors show that, when the Bubble inevitably bursts, Main Street -- not Wall Street -- will take the big hit, unless individual investors take steps to protect themselves now.

This is a book that will make every investor in America think twice before chasing the latest "hot" Internet stock.