The Dinner Club: How the Masters of the Internet Universe Rode the Rise and Fall of the Greatest Boom in History - Softcover

Henry, Shannon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743222164 ISBN 13: 9780743222167

Publisher: Free Press, 2007

Synopsis

Since 1997, on the second Monday of each month, twenty-six of the most powerful men in business, the Vanderbilts and Morgans of their time, would gather to eat dinner, hear investment pitches, and take one of the few breaks they got all month with the handful of people on earth they saw as their peers. When Washington Post reporter Shannon Henry heard about these meetings, she knew that the story of the dinners and the tales told at them would provide a fascinating portrait of the greatest business boom in the history of the world.
What went on in these four-star restaurants and private dining clubs is the inside story of the 1990s...the unimaginable growth of the economy, and in hindsight, its all-too-predictable fall. Henry, widely labeled the "dot-com diva," was the only reporter who had ever been allowed continued access to this intimate and influential group, which included America Online co-founders Steve Case and Jim Kimsey, NASDAQ vice chairman Al Berkeley, WorldCom CEO John Sidgmore, chief executive of MicroStrategy Michael Saylor, Virginia governor and former tech investor Mark Warner, and AOL executive and Washington Wizards co-owner Ted Leonsis. In The Dinner Club, Henry brings readers right to the dinner table, providing an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at these stories of ego, greed, dreams realized, dreams dashed, and the handful who continue to thrive.
From bankrupt companies to blockbuster surprise deals, Henry paints a ruthless, charismatic, and at times humorous portrait of the '90's boom. At one point the mercurial nature of the group and its members' concern about their reputations caused them to un-invite Henry to the meetings. But in the end, she was allowed to return and to chronicle the rise and fall of many of their companies. And now, with so many of these companies in disarray, Henry gives extraordinary insight into what these men were thinking and saying. They didn't think failure could happen to them, because they thought that they were different. But it did.
The Dinner Club is not only the inside story of this historic time, but also a glimpse into the future of America, as the members of the club created a legacy that will forever affect us all.

About this title

About the Author

Before joining the business section of The Washington Post, Shannon Henry was founding editor of TechCapital magazine. She has also written for The Christian Science Monitor, American Banker, and Washington Technology. Time Magazine has called Henry "the leading technology writer in Washington." She lives in Washington, D.C.

From Publishers Weekly

Washington Post tech reporter Henry's first book is a lively account of a billionaire boys club-members include Netscape's Marc Andreessen and AOL's Steve Case-whose purpose was to establish Washington, D.C., as a center of Internet activity. Henry attended the monthly dinners, during which startup CEOs wooed the group, who then nonchalantly voted whether to invest truckloads of cash-"thumbs up or thumbs down" like "the lions and the Christians." The book is ultimately a meditation on the nature of oligarchy during these dizzying times. The titans prove surprisingly fallible, combining the quixotic hope of transformative change while repressing the underlying harsh fiscal reality. Egotistical, greedy, petty, pretentious, grandiose and arrogant, the executives ultimately wanted to overhaul the entire world for the better and fell woefully short of that laudable goal. While the book usefully humanizes these tycoons, it also caters to the ordinary reader's schadenfreude, as the executives glumly watch their paper fortunes dissipate, concoct "Armageddon situations" and undertake "wealth preservation" (a euphemism for curtailing heedless squandering). The book is riotous and riveting, but not flawless. Henry too often leaves readers hankering for more information, and the book's chronology is sometimes irritatingly out of whack. Still, this brisk and incisive account combines the furtive thrill of restricted access with an outsider's detached reflection.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0743222164
• ISBN 13: 9780743222167
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 304