Backchat - Flashback. October 2000: We delve into our archives to find out who and what were making the headlines in our pages five years ago, as LexisNexis added nexis.com to the dot.com boom.

Mergers & acquisitions data free on web from Zephus

Our smiling cover star was Andrew Haddow, managing director of online financial information upstart Zephus.com. The company was offering a new mergers and acquisition database for free on the internet, and claiming, rather disingenuously, that it had no competition, because nobody else offered this data for free online. "We're giving it away because we want to attract a broad user base," said Haddow. "This will then bring the opportunity of making money in different ways rather than just relying on subscriptions income." Revenue projections were "modest even in year two", he added, and the real money will come from selling-on newsletters, events and services to the user base. Haddow was, after all, MD of Manchester-based Newsco Publications, the business information publisher and event organiser. Since those heady days of the dot.com boom, much has changed. Zephus was acquired by Bureau van Dijk, and has morphed into its (reassuringly expensive) Zephyr M&A database. Haddow has left Newsco and now heads up Heart Media Group, a company whose website says it "publishes magazines and brochures and stuff like that."

Boom time for information professional students

We reported on an "upsurge in demand for information professionals", which had led to a "battle for graduate recruits and a plethora of new offerings to win the loyalty of students starting courses this month". TFPL's Darron Chapman revealed that: "Business information and knowledge management graduates are the subject of unprecedented demand". Alan Phee of Phee Farrer Jones said ...