Bamboozled at the Revolution How Big Media Lost Billions in the Battle for the Internet Hardback - 2002

by John Motavalli

The 1990s was one of the most dynamic eras in American business history. Technology was advancing at such a rapid pace, with such widespread growth, and with such giddy enthusiasm from investors, that it seemed too good to last. It was.

Media insider John Motavalli gives a vivid account from the front lines of the compelling drama that developed in the media industry during this time, as old-world, advertising-driven companies thought they'd found a new world to dominate. But it led to some rather colossal failures. Time Warner's FSN was a multibillion-dollar interactive cable disaster and its sequel, the Web-based Pathfinder, was even more embarrasing. Disney, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, and the New York Times Company also stumbled. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg: this struggle is one of the great business follies of our time and continued until January 2000, when AOL swallowed up Time Warner, a first-of-its-kind marriage of new and old.

Fast paced and exciting, Bamboozled at the Revolution reveals a period of wonderful excess and is sure to join Barbarians at the Gate, Burn Rate, and, more recently, The New New Thing as the definitive portraits of unique eras in business.