When the Dot-Com Boom Went Bust

The dot-com boom has been likened to a modern-day gold rush. In the late 1990’s, the “gold” was e-business and there was a frenzy to cash in on it. Hopeful young entrepreneurs, backed by a seemingly endless supply of easy money from investors, founded an overflow of new Internet companies, which were often ill-planned. When many of those companies failed to make a profit, the money vanished, and the boom quickly went bust by 2000-2001.
This e-single, featuring articles from the New York Times archives, chronicles the dot-com bust and its aftermath. Andrew Ross Sorkin writes about the demise of Boo.com, the fashion e-tailer that burned $185 million in 18 months; Reed Abelson gives the final chapter on Pets.com and its Sock Puppet; Hal R. Varian compares the boom with tulipmania; Matt Richtel and John Markoffreport on Silicon Valley; and John Schwartz writes about the death of the dot-com dream and the sobering effect of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.