Spotlight: Lastminute.com's hard road to survival:
Report by Matthew Saltmarsh International Herald Tribune "Upbeat chief sees an end to losses
Summed up in one sentence: "Brent Hoberman could be an archetype of the dot-com era: His business, Lastminute.com, was feted, floated - and then hammered by the market. But unlike many of the e-commerce pioneers of the past decade, he's still hanging in there. While the ascent - and decline - seemed meteoric, the recovery is likely to be more of a steady slog....
Saltmarsh reckons the future is bright-ish though far more grounded than the early, heady days of the internet "bubbles" based on the following:
Europeans have lots of leisure time and the market is bigger than the United States, with far less online penetration.
PhoCusWright, a travel research company, said it expected the European online travel market to grow to €41.2 billion, or $54.4 billion, next year from €19.3 billion last year.
That could pique the interest of the U.S. giants of online travel, which are struggling for growth at home. There has been speculation that IAC/InterActive, run by Barry Diller, and Travelocity, owned by Sabre Holdings, might consider making a bid for Lastminute.com."
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