Does this mark the official end of the internet stock bubble? In the same week that search engine Google floated, the managers of www internet, a fund created in 1996 and the first to focus on investing in stocks related to the world wide web, announced they were winding down.

Having once been worth $510m, the fund has just $10m of assets left after sustaining losses of 57% in 2000, 52% in 2001 and 49% in 2002. A tentative recovery last year petered out and the fund has seen more losses this year. It is no longer economic for the managers to run it. Even Google's IPO failed to stir them.