Fishbowl by Matthew Glass

Author:Matthew Glass
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atlantic Books Ltd

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FOR FISHBOWL, THE effects of Denver were far-reaching. Andrei received approaches from the FBI and even more shadowy agencies in the intelligence community on the mistaken assumption that his cooperation after the bombing meant that he would be keen to cooperate in other, less overt ways. There was talk of ‘back doors’ and ‘mass data transfers’. Andrei rebuffed them all and eventually they stopped contacting him, presumably reverting to their usual ways of snooping. Although security on the site had been a priority ever since John Dimmer had turned up with Fishbowl’s first National Security Letter, Andrei had a team get to work on developing even more sophisticated levels of encryption.

A more important effect was that user registration skyrocketed, at first out of solidarity from the inhabitants of cyberspace as Fishbowl came under McKenrick’s attack, then due to the internet multiplier phenomenon as awareness of Fishbowl entered truly popular consciousness. ‘Fishing’ and ‘Baiting’ became words in general use, even amongst people who had never opened Fishbowl – and they weren’t talking about rod and reel.

As user numbers rose, advertising revenues continued to surge, and investment interest in Fishbowl intensified. Valuations of the business were now heading north of a billion dollars. At its core, the advertising model was that which had been developed by Andrei in the early days of the 4Site contract, continuously improved and refined by a team overseen by Kevin. Andrei himself took little interest in it now. As far as he was concerned, the advertising operation merely provided the funds for server space and salaries to drive the development of all the other functionalities that his programmers were working on. None of the other meta-networks that had been set up to try to capitalize on Fishbowl’s success came close in their capabilities.

Eventually, Andrei got a call from Mike Sweetman

For the second time in Fishbowl’s short history, Sweetman asked if Andrei wanted to sell. This time the offer was for $1.5 billion, raised immediately to $2 billion when Andrei’s response was negative.

Andrei had no interest in selling. Fishbowl was in the almost unprecedented situation of being a start-up that had reached mega proportions without recourse to venture capital. Chris Hamer’s investment of $1 million aside, and excepting the few tens of thousands that each of the founders had put in, Fishbowl had financed its own growth.

When Andrei said he wasn’t going to sell, Sweetman asked if Andrei wanted to explore a partnership, offering to discontinue Openreach as part of any deal. It wasn’t as big a concession as it sounded – it was an open secret that Openreach had failed, and its continued existence was something of an embarrassment for Homeplace. A series of meetings ensued. Andrei, Chris and James sat on one side of the table, Sweetman and his chief financial officer on the other side. But although there were many potential synergies, no matter how Sweetman pitched it, at the core of the partnership there always seemed to be some kind of preferential ranking or treatment for Homeplace users.

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