Deutsche Boerse, the main German stock market operator today announced that the Neuer Markt (new market) would be dumped by the end of the year. It’s a widely welcomed and probably useful decision to get rid of a market and respective index that has plunged for 2 1/2 years in a row. Fair enough, what goes up like a rocket, must come down once the boosters burn out. But I remember all the success stories back in 1999. I remember the days before those 2 1/2 years, when “going public” was the main subject in my business schools cafeteria. When the Neuer Markt was synonym with getting rich, fast.

There will be a new, more efficient trading system for tech stocks. I guess it’s a good sign that the market is being cleared from all those penny stocks, whose IPO was probably planned in a cafeteria just like mine. It’s not that the digital revolution is dead. It’s just that it is eating is children. Another revolution to prove that rule.