Advantage server
THE bright iridescent sphere now being wafted to market in London is called Freeserve. It gets its sheen from the Inter- net, is described as a provider, and was part of Dixons until Sir Stanley Kalms found out what he could sell it for. He can expect i1V2 billion, which is more than half of Freeserve's annual sales, and an infinite multiple of its earnings, since it does not have any, so far. Netsters are surfing all over each other to buy at this price. Ameri- can netsters buy Internet stocks through Internet brokers, at any price. A .com in the name is all it takes. Ten years ago the shares of Nippon Telephone and Telegraph were priced at 70 times its earnings. NTT was only a utility, and a stodgy one at that, but it was Japanese, and that was all it took — for as long, that is to say, as Japan's bubble economy lasted. How enticing these bubbles are, while they last.
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