Chart of the Week: Dotcom bubble IPOs

{"text":[[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":5.95,"text":"Good morning. The second half of 2026 is expected to bring a landslide of tech IPOs. After years of start-ups preferring to stay private, tech companies — led by the AI labs — are preparing to return to the stock market, at otherworldly valuations. Although it bills itself as a rocket company, SpaceX, with its side hustle in AI, fits firmly into this category. "}],[{"start":31.099999999999998,"text":"It’s a good moment, therefore, to look at the previous great tech IPO boom. The dotcom bubble is notorious for the speculative froth and the very questionable valuations afforded to any listing with a URL for a name. But for every Pets.com, there was a solid business with sound fundamentals caught up in the frenzy. And even for the good companies, it took a decade or more for their dotcom-era valuations to recover."}],[{"start":54.7,"text":"Take Cisco. The network infrastructure company went public a full decade before the peak of the bubble, but it benefited from the bubble no less. In March 2000, Cisco overtook Microsoft to become the most valuable company in the world. But that valuation wasn’t to last. It took Cisco 25 years, eight months and 13 days to get back to it in December 2025."}],[{"start":77.30000000000001,"text":"Cisco was, in a way, the picks-and-shovels stock of the internet era. And the fact that it is still around speaks to the quality of its business. But that wasn’t enough to justify its valuation in March 2000. It’s not for us to call the current cycle a bubble. But if there’s a lesson to be drawn from the dotcom IPOs, it’s that there is more to boomtime investing than just buying the companies at technology’s leading edge."}],[{"start":101.00000000000001,"text":"Send us your thoughts: unhedged@ft.com."}],[{"start":105.20000000000002,"text":"Good reads from Unhedged"}],[{"start":107.20000000000002,"text":"Katie: ‘Flawless’ rather than ‘tasty’"}],[{"start":110.35000000000002,"text":"Daire: Fantasy debt manager"}],[{"start":112.70000000000002,"text":"Rob: A past mayor"}],[{"start":115.55000000000001,"text":"Hakyung: A potential future mayor"}],[{"start":null,"text":"

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