How the Morton bubble has burst

BOB MORTON personifies the bursting of the dot com bubble.

The entrepreneur who established a hit-and-miss record in the 1990s with a string of stock market investments saw his empire valued at almost £200m at the peak of technology boom, only to see it shrink to a fraction of that as the trend became anything but his friend.

Collapsing share prices in Morton's portfolio have savaged his reputation as a sharp investor. Much of his gloss was wiped off by his investment in Systems Union Group, the IT services company whose share price has plunged from a peak of 550p to just 92 1/2p Friday.

But it would be unfair to blame Systems Union for all his pain. Shares in Armour Trust are down 47% from their highs, Vislink 72% and InterClubNet 62%.

Friday, Morton-chaired BSoftB, which has a net kitty of £5.5m, reported a £1.3m interim loss. The shares quickly fell 2 1/2p to 15p.