Underwriting the Internet

Chapter 8 The Enron Debacle

In March 2000 the dot-com bubble peaked, and then the finger pointing began as market capitalization losses would reach $7 trillion. Financing evaporated for money-losing start-ups concocted by inept and criminally bent founders, and their corporate launching pads quickly folded. Enron, which had built an online empire trading energy and broadband contracts, became a huge casualty, seeking court protection from creditors in December 2001. It was followed by Global Crossing and WorldCom, which had also staked their future on broadband transmission by building and buying optical fiber networks to serve the exponential growth of high-speed Internet traffic. Like colleagues at Amazon.com and AOL, top management at the ...