Many of the companies involved would not survive the subsequent crash. The networks they built, however, would continue, to this day, to underpin the global internet.
When recalling the dotcom boom, people tend to think of the era’s speculative excesses: day traders flipping hot internet stocks; and smart (but ever-so-reckless) money bankrolling anything with a “.com” suffix — from toy stores to pet retailers.
But there was another kind of excess, too — more tangible and enduring than numbers flickering on trading screens.
