International Cyberscope.(includes multiple articles)(Brief Article)

DOT-COMS

Fame and Failure

It was only a matter of time before Europe's dot-com poster children rose from the ashes of their worthless stock options and made another grab at fame and fortune. Just as books like "Burn Rate" and films like "Startup.com" chronicled the bursting of America's high-tech bubble, Europe's own dot-com demise has spawned a slew of inside tell-alls this fall.

At the center of it all are the infamous boo.com founders, Ernst Malmsten and Kajsa Leander. They are coming out with a book, for which their agent is busy selling film rights. Set for release on Nov. 1, "boo hoo: a dot.com story from Concept to Catastrophe" will tell the tale of the "revolutionary, glamorous, and staggeringly ambitious" online retailer. But will it tell how the photogenic founders of the failed site (valued at $390 million before it was even up and running) managed to blow through $100 million within a year? On the off chance it doesn't, journalist Gunnar Lindstedt looks at boo.com in his book, coming out Oct. 23 in Swedish (the juicy details should warrant a translation). Lindstedt's main source was Patrik Hedelin, the little- known third founder of boo.com who was later pushed out. Malmsten and Leander, Lindstedt says, spent the money on flashy hotels, PR agents, champagne parties and the Concorde. He also paints Leander as a high- tech Lady Macbeth, pulling the strings on Malmsten, her former lover. "She left him, and that was a problem," says Lindstedt. "Ernst was still in love with her, and she could manipulate him."

None of boo.com's founders come off well in "dot.bomb: The Rise & Fall of Dot.Com Britain," published last week. In it, BBC correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones gives the broad story of companies like boo, lastminute.com, First Tuesday and QXL. He also tells how the dot-com roller coaster increased the number of individual shareholders in Britain but failed to change the old establishment business culture.

Rana Foroohar

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