Hi Ed,

Fortune magazine did some articles about the questionable accounting practices of the "dot.con's" in an issue right before the crash - as it was imminent. I don;t have the issue off hand, but in this era folks like RedHerring.com and others were fueling the speculative frenzy of a 100,000 point stock market, predicted by twenty-four year old CEO's of dot-con's.

I'm sure a Google search on "fraudulent accounting e-business" or some similar combination will bring up something online of use.

Some stocks which were floating at 80 dollars went to under 25cents in two months. Some of these companies had hundreds of millions of shares. So they went from billion dollar companies to nearly worthless and unable to pay employees - and mainly state and federal taxes on their stock.

This is what forced closure of so many dot.coms - the fact that they were publicly held. Privately held companies were much more fortified against the obligations of their public counterparts. Yet having an IPO was the way to make the 'big bucks'.

Best wishes,

SDAI-Tech1