As early as November 2000, CNNFN.com pegged the losses at $1.7 trillion.49 But of course, that would only count public companies. The amount of money lost to dot-coms that went bankrupt before IPOing or getting acquired would push the calculation of losses higher still. Beyond the public companies, it’s estimated that 7,000 to 10,000 new online enterprises were launched in the late 1990s, and by mid-2003, around 4,800 of those had either been sold or gone under.50 Many trillions of dollars in wealth vanished almost overnight. Obviously that amount of money leaving the playing field had to have
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