Dr. Koop and the greed disease

If any one stock epitomized the excesses of 1999 and early 2000, it would have to be Drkoop.com. Its short unlikely life has all the elements of an Internet Age morality play: a young company that went public with little but a brand name and a half-baked business plan. Drkoop.com had barely been on the public markets a month and bid it up to a ridiculous $1.3 billion in market value; then, during the next 10 months, they watched it deflate by more than 90%. In late April, the company said it had enough cash to stay in business for only about 4 more months. If it cannot find an acquirer, or a deep-pocketed backer, Drkoop.com could become the first prominent dot-com to declare bankruptcy.