On March 10, 2000, the tech-heavy NASDAQ composite topped out at an intraday high of 5,132. Today, we’re at less than half of that with an open this morning of 2,340. But what about the survivors of the crash — Amazon.com (AMZN), Priceline.com (PCLN), eBay (EBAY) and others? Let’s take a look!
And lest you think that 10-year slide was a gradual one, it’s worth pointing out that a mere year after this peak, in March 2001, the Nasdaq dipped back below 2,000 before settling at a low of 1,638 on April 4, 2001. That’s a gut-wrenching slide of almost 70% in just 13 months!
Even the dottiest dot-com fanatic had to admit that companies with P/E ratios in the triple digits were probably overbought — or that companies with no sign of entering profitability anytime soon had to pay the piper eventually. And pay they did, with many tech companies folding or beaten down to nothing.
But the companies that survived tell a mixed story of success and “right sizing” after the tech bubble burst a decade ago. Here are some select Internet stocks from across the entire market and how they compare to valuations back at the peak of the Nasdaq (Note: 2000 prices are adjusted for splits, dividends, etc.)
SYMBOL |
STOCK |
3/10/00 |
3/10/10 |
Gain/Loss |
Amazon.com |
$66.88 |
$128.82 |
92.61% |
|
Bluefly.com |
$115.00 |
$2.51 |
-97.82% |
|
Drugstore.com |
$21.13 |
$3.36 |
-84.10% |
|
Ebay |
$24.16 |
$25.51 |
5.59% |
|
Gaiam |
$17.12 |
$8.51 |
-50.29% |
|
Move, Inc. |
$57.72 |
$1.95 |
-96.62% |
|
Priceline.com |
$567.01 |
$238.33 |
-57.97% |
|
Stamps.com |
$51.94 |
$10.11 |
-80.54% |
|
TheStreet.com |
$11.37 |
$3.76 |
-66.93% |
|
Yahoo! |
$89.03 |
$16.53 |
-81.43% |
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