This is feeling more like the late-1990s all the time. Latest case in point: the proposed initial public offering of Accoona, an online electronics retailer that is in the process of building new businesses in search, comparison shopping and what it calls "online-based lead generation," while also venturing out into China.

The key phrase here is "in the process". As this regulatory filing shows, all but 2 per cent of the company’s revenues in the most recent quarter came from selling consumer electronics online – something it does far from profitably, given that its overall gross margin was a paltry 4.5 per cent. Add in other costs, and this was a company that lost $50m on revenues of under $150m last year. Read more