Book Description

There is an on-going debate on corporate governance, but the focus appears to be on traditional companies, with little mention of Internet companies, which creates an unsettling vacuum considering the strong possibility of a future dot.com revival despite the current halt. It appears to have been taken for granted that the same arguments for the corporate governance of traditional companies applies equally to Internet companies; the current stance regarding this issue is rather unclear. Moreover, a study of traditional case law appears to indicate a movement towards more stringent standards of corporate governance adopted by the courts in Commonwealth countries. This, in theory, might appear to threaten the survival of the dot.com by stifling its characteristically more dynamic style of functioning compared to its staid traditional counterparts. However, deeper research has indicated disturbing overtones of the dot.com, such as the dominance of younger inexperienced directors, smaller “incestuous” boards, directors with dubious histories, all of which would appear to compromise the attempts at fostering international best practice of corporate governance. In this regard, the preservation of the current stringent standards adopted by the courts is, in the final analysis, a welcome measure for companies operating in the New Economy.