The Year 2000 belonged to the lawyers and to the stock market. The first fought it out in the courts over trail breaking cases, like the Microsoft antitrust case and the Napster copyright infringement case, which may redefine the way IT business is done, while the latter took technology companies on a roller coaster ride, taking them first up and then dropping them mercilessly at an even faster pace.

The dotcoms, which for some strange reason are considered to be part of and even better than the IT fraternity, started the year on a high note, but by now, when the year is drawing to a close, many of them have already folded up, with most others waging a desperate battle for survival. The dotcom philosophy of seemingly unending investments without any immediate plans for profits was touted as the mantra of a new economy for some time, before the market gave way to the need to be profitable. The first of the big names, and perhaps the most famous case to go belly up, was Boo.com, a Web-based up-market fashion retailer. When the story became known, it came to light that Boo had spent millions of dollars in advertising and other business expenses with hardly any sales to show.

The path that the dotcoms took, of depending on venture funding and not internal accruals for every business expense, including working capital, is what ultimately led to the tight situation that the entire sector is in. With no cash flows of their own, they were dependant on round after round of venture funding for their very existence. Initially, venture capitalists were too willing to pump in the money without bothering too much about the sustainability of the business. But after a few Web businesses went belly up, they began asking questions, and to cut a long story short, funding dried up. Simultaneously, the stock market also went on a downswing, possibly for the same reasons, and the squeeze for those who depended on the value of their stock and nothing else became really hard. Nobody is yet questioning the utility of the Web as a way to reach customers. But there are serious questions being raised on the very survival of a Web-only business.

So, in all this frenzy who made money? Two types of businesses made money during the height of the dotcom frenzy. And one of these two was a business that the Web was expected to kill off—print media, including newspapers and magazines. The dotcoms had to resort to large doses of print advertising to drive up their valuations with the venture capitalists. The second were those who provided services to the dotcoms—those who developed the Websites, or provided the software and hardware for them. Even the stock market did, to some extent, reflect this reality.

Another group of companies that had a rough time this year were the Linux companies. Last year, many companies providing products and services around Linux had gone to the stock markets and raised money. This year saw their stock prices tumbling down, as most couldn’t produce a positive bottom line. About the only exception was Red Hat, which was able to produce a better financial performance than both.

In the following section, we’ll look at some of the familiar international names and see what the year ahead could have in store for them. This is not an exhaustive list, but just a top-of-the-mind selection.