Random House Acquires Internet Book by Merrill Lynch Analyst, Henry Blodget

Business Wire, Oct 4, 1999

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 4, 1999--

Random House will publish a major nonfiction book by Henry Blodget, Merrill Lynch & Co.'s senior Internet analyst, publisher Ann Godoff announced today.

The work, not yet titled, examines the forces underlying the Internet revolution, and will be published in May 2001. "My aim is to tell the story of the Internet as an agent of economic change--from its commercialization in the mid-1990's to its ongoing impact on the global economy and stock markets to its likely endgame," Blodget said.

Blodget was represented by literary agent Andrew Wylie, who approached the 33-year-old analyst after noticing his on-air commentary on CNBC and CNN. "He seemed the right person to step back from the Internet forest of rising and falling trees and see the whole forest for what it is," Wylie said.

Blodget, who graduated from Yale University in 1988, was a freelance writer and journalist before entering the investment field. Blodget attracted national attention when, in December 1998, he raised his price target of Amazon.com stock to $400 per share -- more than twice his previous target. That day, Amazon's price increase by 46 points.

Wylie submitted Blodget's proposal to a select group of publishers in mid-September and held an auction days later. The book was acquired by Random House senior editor Jonathan Karp. "I read a lot of proposals on the Internet and this one towers above the others in the lucidity of its perspective," Karp said. "Henry Blodget has a rare talent for discerning the hidden patterns and explaining why all of this market madness actually makes sense, historically and economically."

Random House acquired North American rights to the work, which Wylie plans to offer to foreign publishers at the upcoming Frankfurt Book Fair in mid October.