Things certainly move fast in the new economy. Not so long ago companies were falling over themselves to emphasise their links with the internet. Now net-savvynness is becoming a liability. Or so it seems from the announcement yesterday by Gameplay.com, the online games retailer, that it is dropping the "dot.com" from its name. The move is designed to underline the company's lack of reliance on the net for its revenues.
"Internet sales are only a small proportion of our total sales - we're actually selling more off the television than we are off the internet," said chief executive Mark Bernstein, before adding, unconvincingly, that the name change had nothing to do with recent sharp falls in business-to-consumer stock prices. "It was planned well in advance of whatever might or might not have happened to the stock market." He did concede that Techmark index losses had speeded up the rebranding process.
"I want to be able to demonstrate that we're not full of hot air. We've got very substantial revenues."
Mr Bernstein was speaking after Gameplay made an all-paper acquisition of Nordic Games Holdings, a Scandinavian computer games mail order retailer, for up to £5.96m.
The fact that vendors are prepared to take Gameplay's paper presumably means that they share Mr Bernstein's enthusiasm for his company. But he is sensible to distance himself from the hype over the net.
Investors are slowly waking up to the fact that it is not whether or not you are an internet business that counts. What matters is how good the business is, dot or no dot.com. Research from Credit Suisse First Boston shows some narrowing of the gap between medium term expectations for old and new economy companies. But the spread remains wide. Thirty-five old economy stocks still have implied medium term growth rates of 0% or less, while 23 new economy stocks are expected to grow at 20% plus in the medium term.
So there is still a long way to go before the market is back at anything like reality. At present, investors are only buying old economy stocks selectively. The same may be true of new economy stocks before long.