Happy 10th Birthday, Dotcom Bubble... Have A Tin Can
The traditional tenth year anniversary gift is supposed to be made of tin or aluminum. In modern times, we’ve switched to diamonds. But some occasions – like the peak of the Nasdaq bubble – seem better suited to tin. It was exactly ten years ago that the Nasdaq Composite Index hit its all-time record value of 5,132.52, after more than doubling from year-ago levels. The rise was fueled by an unprecedented wave of speculation in Internet and technology stocks, which subsequently crashed back to earth. Today at around 2,350, the Nasdaq is still far, far from regaining those highs. I looked at historical prices for a few then-and-now comparisons. On March 10, 2000, shares of JDS Uniphase were selling for $276 (it’s now $11.60). Yahoo was $178 (now around $16.50). And InfoSpace was going for $245 (now around $12). There were 287 venture-backed IPOs that year, which raised a total of $25.6 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
