Overvalued

Related Subjects: Overage
Book reviews for "Overvalued" sorted by average review score:
The Internet Bubble : Inside the Overvalued World of High-Tech Stocks--- And What You Need to Know to Avoid the Coming Shakeout
Published in Hardcover by HarperBusiness (01 November, 1999)
Authors: Anthony B. Perkins and Michael C. Perkins
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Canals. Railroads. Automobiles. Computers. The Internet. Each represented revolutionary shifts in the way Americans would live and do business. Each saw a corresponding rush of investors to get in on this great new investment opportunity. Each saw a lot of investors go broke. In The Internet Bubble, Anthony Perkins and Michael Perkins, founding editors of The Red Herring, look at it this way: In the early 20th century, there were more than 500 automobile companies in the U.S. Now how many are there? Same with the new Internet companies, the Perkinses predict. A few will grow into profitable businesses in 10 or 20 years, but even then, their stocks may not be worth much more than their 1999 prices. They argue that buying an Internet stock today is really nothing more than gambling that someone else will come along and buy it from you for more money.

The book includes an overview of the biggest players in the Internet explosion, the market mania for Internet stocks, and profiles of companies such as Amazon.com, Yahoo! and At Home. The authors also interview venture capitalists who help new companies get off the ground and the investment bankers who help them go public. And while they don't pretend that they know when the Internet bubble will burst, or what the damage will be, they are convinced that most .com companies will never make a dime. The book concludes with some thoughts about investing in this climate, and argues that ignoring the Internet may be as dangerous to your portfolio as investing too much. Some guidelines about product cycles and diversification appear, but the biggest rule seems to be: Don't be the one holding the hot potato at the end of the game. --Lou Schuler

Average review score:

Internet Bubble
In this book the Perkins tell us that the party is about over. They state flatly that, "If you own any of these companies (133 publicly traded Internet firms) it's time to sell". The book is a comprehensive analysis of how we got to the present state of affairs by looking at the history and the financial structure of the Internet marketplace. I read the book in two sittings over the weekend because after the first few pages I didn't want to miss the markets opening bell on Monday. The book is simply, scary. When business models, like Amazon's fail to demonstrate a way to ever be profitable it is time to worry.

They don't deny the glory of Silicon Valley, but they lay out a compelling case that the pumped up valuations are not sustainable and are about to go south big time. The book reads like a movie but feels like a slap up side the head. As the companies tank we at Buck's will be accepting stock certificates to repaper the rest rooms, so drop them by if you would.

Jamis MacNiven Buck's of Woodside

Please read carefully before you invest¿.
If you're looking for a book that will give you a good bird's eye view of the kind of investing currently going on in .com land, as well as a historical overview of past (mostly technology) bubbles, this one fits the bill. Better yet, if you're at Buck's restaurant in Silicon Valley, waiting for that venture capitalist you're trying to pitch on your latest business plan, you can pick up a copy and start reading right there! The Internet Bubble is a handy compendium of the history of previous technology bubbles, and the roles venture capitalists, investment bankers, and institutional investors -- as well as over-eager entrepreneurs - played in them, and anecdotes (some new, some already known) about the similar funding frenzy of today's .com stocks. It's meant as a caution to individual investors, and explains how they tend to end up holding the hot potato when companies are sent to the public markets too soon (as even some of the venture capitalists who fund those companies admit). Useful knowledge for any individual investor in .com stocks to have....

Great Book!
I read this book over 2 years ago and am glad I did! This saved me plenty of $$$$.

Related Subjects: Overage