Is the Internet boom back?

Judging by the covers of business magazines this month, you'd think it was 1999 all over again.

After all, when was the last time you heard about an Internet IPO? Well, the business world is abuzz over the pending IPO of search-engine Google Inc. The company filed for an initial public offering in late April and may sell an estimated $2.7 billion worth of shares.

Google's IPO, likely to take place in the next three months, would be the largest initial offering for an Internet company, breaking the record $431 million set by BarnesandNoble.com in 1999. It would also place Google in the pantheon of largest IPOs in U.S. history at No. 15. Google could be valued at $20 billion to $30 billion, which would make the 6-year-old company more valuable than Sears, Roebuck & Co.

And who isn't rooting for them? It's a dot-com story straight out of yesteryear. Two brainy Stanford University computer science students founded an Internet company used today by more than 100 million people a month. The company's name is now commonly used as a verb.

Despite their success, Google is fiercely holding onto its idealistic startup culture as it makes its transition into a large publicly traded corporation. The IPO filing even refers to its executives by their first names. The company is also planning to sell the shares through a modified Dutch auction -- a method that minimizes the role of investment bankers and gives more access to individual investors.

Only there's something different this time around. Unlike many of its Internet predecessors, Google has been enormously profitable -- for three years running.

The tech world has its fingers crossed that the IPO is a success because it could finally give tech firms access to the public markets that have largely shut them out since the bubble burst.

However, as BusinessWeek points out in its May 3 issue, this is no slam-dunk. In the cover story, "Google: Beyond the Hype," writer Ben Elgin looks at the big challenges ahead for Google.

Competitors Microsoft and Yahoo loom on the horizon, ready to "battle for the heart of the Net." Yahoo is working to develop customized searches that are tailored to each individual's interests and even location, creating the kind of highly targeted audiences that advertisers love. Microsoft is taking a different approach by embedding search capabilities into its pervasive Windows operating system.

If Google is to survive the assault of these two tech giants, the story suggests, it must expand and make its search engine a central platform for computing. The article explores the debate over whether Google's startup culture is an asset or a liability to becoming a powerhouse on par with Yahoo and Microsoft.

Still, the hype seems to have stirred up renewed interest in the Internet. And the next generation of dot-coms, along with those that survived the bust, are again rewriting the rules in many industries -- and making money at it. According to BusinessWeek's May 10 cover story, "E-Biz Strikes Again," nearly 60 percent of public Internet companies were profitable in the fourth quarter of last year. The article, by Timothy Mullaney, looks at six industries being reshaped by the Web: jewelry, bill payments, telecom, hotels, real estate and software. Online businesses in these sectors are forcing down the prices charged by traditional companies -- and the offline players are fighting back.

One of the Internet companies taking several industries by storm is InterActiveCorp -- unquestionably one of the "four horsemen" of the Internet, along with Amazon, Yahoo and eBay. Though perhaps not a household name like the others, everyone has heard of InterActiveCorp's brands, which include Home Shopping Network, Ticketmaster, Citysearch, Expedia, LendingTree and Match.com.

InterActiveCorp's CEO Barry Diller has struck more than $8 billion worth of deals in 18 months. He's featured on the cover of Fortune's May 3 issue. "Diller.com," by Bethany McLean, profiles the executive and how he created a company, not by launching businesses, but by acquiring them.

Diller has even greater ambitions for his company -- which is already worth more than Amazon -- including triple its revenues in the next five years, increase profits at a 25 percent to 30 percent annual rate and "spend more than anyone else can afford" on marketing ($1 billion this year alone). His goal: "Create the largest, most profitable e-commerce company in the world."

So with all this Internet buzz in the air, "Is the party on?" asks Barron's in its May 3 cover story, "Bubbly Bulls," by Jack Willoughby. According to a Barron's poll of money managers, the answer is yes.

Bulls outnumbered bears by a wide margin, despite the market's recent woes. The article also looks at the favorite and least favorite stocks of the investment professionals polled -- and yes, several Internet stocks made the list.

Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism