How Three Web Titans Survived the Bust

Google's search growth is certainly slowing from its early torrid pace even as it adds photo and mapping site doodads, and competitors such as Yahoo! and Ask JeevesASKJ are ramping up their own efforts. The company isn't going to fall over, but at a tremendously optimistic current price of 16 times sales (compared with 12 times sales for Yahoo! and six times sales for Symantec), its risks at this point may outweigh its undeniable opportunities. In five years' time, a good way to search for information on Google might be "2005 dot-com bust."

And I have not forgotten about that reference to Exelon at the top. Despite all the excitement around technology in 2000, shares of many humble electricity suppliers have, like this Illinois utility, easily trumped their flashier dot-com customers, another manifestation of the trend I explained in last week's column on the rise of suppliers over manufacturers.

Exelon shares are up 142% since March 9, 2000, with industry-leading gross margins of 42% and net margins of 13%. And one imagines they don't serve their linemen and nuclear power plant operators free bisque with their biscuits.