MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 17 (UPI) -- The dot-com phenomenon, dormant for years after the first bust, is rising again for companies dotting California's Silicon Valley.
Internet start-ups are drawing investment based on their ability to build an audience, not bring in revenue, which observers maintain led to the original dot-com bubble bursting, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The surge in the perceived value of some start-ups has even surprised some entrepreneurs who are benefiting from it. Social network Facebook in Palo Alto, Calif., for example, is popular, unproven and reportedly being valued by investors at up to $15 billion. Search engine giant Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., which saw its stock streak past $600 a share, is now worth more than IBM, a company with eight times the revenue.
“The environmental factors are much different than they were eight years ago,” said Roelof Botha, a partner at Sequoia Capital and early backer of YouTube. “The cost of doing business has declined dramatically and traditional media companies have also woken up to the opportunities of the Web.
