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Then: He put Pets.com on the map in a $2 million spot during the 2000 Super Bowl--aired right around the time the company said it had lost $61.8 million on sales of $5.8 million.
Now: The Sock Puppet was sold for $125,000 in the Pets.com liquidation. Most recently, he has been shilling for 1-800-Bar- None, which provides car loans to people with bad credit.
Then: In 1998, Blodget predicted Amazon.com's stock would hit $400. For the next three years, the inexperienced onetime fact checker for Harper's slapped aggressive price targets on any old dotcom dog, earning more than $18 million.
Now: After paying a $4 million fine and agreeing to leave the securities biz, Blodget returned to journalism. In November, he wrote the first in a series for Slate.com on the trial of Martha Stewart and her broker (another Merrill embarrassment).
Then: Two twentysomethings, not yet finished with college, started a company called The Globe.com (though no one's quite sure what it did). In 1998, it shattered IPO records, rising 606%. Yes, we have a bubble!
Now: Krizelman went to Harvard Business School and last fall started in the management program at Bertelsmann (parent of Fast Company). Paternot has turned to the cinema, starring in a film called Shutter and trying to adapt a book he wrote into a screenplay.
Then: At the height of his power between 1999 and 2000, guru Gilder, with his newsletter and its 65,000 devoted followers, could move markets. A nod to Avanex in April 2000, for example, sent the stock up 155%.
Now: After nearly all of Gilder's darlings famously tanked, his reputation plummeted faster than the Nasdaq. He has just 8,500 subscribers left, and a business associate holds a lien on his house in the Berkshires.
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