Rating: 
Summary: Valuable Resource for Investors
Review: Kaplan should be commended for both his book and FC website. Investing in companies can be dangerous, especially small tech startups. An investor needs to know what is happening behind the public relations spin. I think of Kaplan as both a watchdog for the investor and a resource for future investing. He's received numerous "cease and desist" letters from lawyers and threats of large lawsuits for posting information about a company. If the information is true (and with Kaplan it almost always is true and MONTHS ahead of becoming public knowledge) then too bad for the companies. These dot.coms took advantage of stockholders and investors and burned through millions of dollars. Kaplan is slowly expanding beyond dot.coms and adding all types of companies to his watch list. I hope he stays on the scene for years to come.
Rating:
Summary: If you were a victim of the dot com crash, just read it!
Review: I was in fact one of those who didn't quite enjoy those times... there was this company who used to sponsor my site, had hundreds of dollars debt with me, then one day I received an email from the CFO saying that they cannot pay right now.. 2 months later they went officially bankrupt..
This book is about those days, when it seemed that the whole web was crumbling down... Even though I didn't enjoy those days, I really enjoyed reading this book.. the author always seems really happy that another company has closed down... with some humorous lines here and there
Rating: 
Summary: Not journalism, mostly inuendo
Review: I enjoyed f'dcompany.com during the big flame-out of 2000-2001. It was nice to see which other companies were going under while mine (ubo.com) was in the process of being f'd. The book is written in the same cras, irreverent, obscene style as the website and that is entertaining in small batches. My complaint is that in the only case I know of for sure, ubo.com (Chapter 10, Party Like It's 1999), Kaplan's facts are very f'd up. For example, the company didn't rent Liberty Island for the launch party, it was Ellis island and the company was in business for over 18 months, not "less than a year." You may say these are little details and they are, but if Kaplan puts this stuff in print I expect it will go down in the annals of history as fact. I can only imagine how much of the rest of the book is pure rumour or speculation on Kaplan's part. I am glad that someone caught the moment in print, but what good is it really if a lot of it is factually incorrect?
Rating:
Summary: A great and hilarious read...
Review: I had read the ... website pretty regularly, and when I heard about the release of this book, I knew it was something I had to have. Received it for Christmas, and we spent most of Christmas morning howling with laughter over this guy's brutal honesty. He writes his book the way we think and talk - and holds nothing back. For anyone who remembers any of these silly dotcom companies and what they tried to make $$ doing, this is a must have... Highly recommended for any geek out there. :)
Rating:
Summary: A fool and his money are soon parted.....
Review: A sardonic overview of the dot-com bust of 2000-2002, the book has short blurbs on over 100 internet companies that are no longer with us including such classics as Pets.com, Kozmo.com and MVP.com. My particular favorite was the description of CyberRebate.com. Here was CyberRebate's business plan: 1. Send us money
2. We will send you great products (Nintendo, DVD Players)
3. Fourteen weeks later we will refund your purchase and you get to keep the stuff! How were they going to make a profit? VOLUME! No, actually the plan was that a certain percentage of their customers would forget to fill out the rebate form! Kaplan also speculates that the company took money from its customers up front, then invested the money in the high-flying stock market. Basically, a modern day Ponzi scheme. One more thing - why did they promise your money back after fourteen weeks? Well, one reason could be that you can only dispute a credit card charge within the first nine weeks of purchase. When the company finally went into Bankrupcy, one of their customers was reportedly owed $115 in rebates. Apparetnly the person was paying for his stuff upfront, getting the goods, selling them on Ebay and then was planning on making his profit when the "rebate" came in. Oops! A real reminder as to how dumb some of the business plans were, how bad or useless the technology was and how much money was thrown away on these "dot-com flameouts" that once seemd so promising.
Rating: 
Summary: Well, I thought it was good.
Review: This was definitely worth the money. I saw an exerpt in PC Magazine or someplace and decided to go ahead and get it. It's very funny and has some very interesting trivia, but if you're looking for a novel, this isn't for you. One note, however. It seems that F'd Companies has F'd itself, as their website is no longer online. The address is the title of the book, but spelled out.
Rating:
Summary: Easy Reading
Review: Some might complain about the writing style, however I find it entertaining. It's a very easy read and I like the fact that the summaries on the businesses are short and to the point. Those that where involved with the dotCOM bust knew it was a fraud that had to crash, and this is a great flashback and review of exactly what happened.
Rating:
Summary: YUO don't get it...YAF,R?
Review: Look people - this book is not meant to be used for class discussion @ wharton. This is basically a book for those of us that would rather laugh than continue the charade that the dotcom industry boom was anything other than a free for all money grab. Please take your overly analytic sniveling elsewhere. Yes, there are more sophisticated books on the topic availible...but they were all written by someone wearing pants. I'd write more but I just burped and a pea rolled out...
Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining reading on dead companies...
Review: Although the book is riddled with profanities, Philip Kaplan does a good job of presenting the dead dot-coms in a humorous manner. He merely voices what most of us are thinking. It really gives you an idea of just how bad a lot of the dot-coms were out there, and how everyone got caught up in the rush to get rich off of stock options, etc. A lack of a viable business model was one of the major reasons a lot of the companies went under. Other reasons are presented in the book.
Rating:
Summary: Coffee table book material
Review: You really have to be a fan of the site in order to really enjoy this book. If you're a fan, you know about Kaplan's masturabatory obsessions and how he never gets laid, so you take comments scattered throughout the book in stride. But then again, if you've read the site, you know about these companies and how bad they failed.
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