Internet Investment Bubble Burst

after the Internet investment bubble burst, the original concept of easylnternetcafé (elc) was just not working out. The management decided to retrench, closing and downsizing some of the original cafes. Their new philosophy was to franchise the operations. So far the company had created about 20 franchised cafes. mostly in Europe, with 5 in the New York City area. The company has established itself as the per-eminent internet café chain in Europe, but it has still not made a profit. Stelios, the CEO of the parent company is running out of patience, and if the losses are not stemmed soon, will pull the plug. He has given the company 9 month to start showing

radical improvement. Currently, they were basically operating off the cuff. with no real

operating plan for how to supply and open each new franchise. In order to address this problem, Roger Jones, Managing Director of elc hired Raj Chopra, an MBA student from a highly regarded business school as an intern to analyze their current operations and provide a report on options for the future. Raj was an IT major during his undergraduate years, and saw this as a way to really combine his new skills from his MBA with his IT and internet knowledge.

A brief history and background of‘ easvGroup

easylnternetcafé Ltd. www. a int rn tcafe. in) was part of the easyGroup www.eas rou .co.uk), founded and promoted by the well-renowned Greek entrepreneur Stelios Haji-loannou (www stelios com). Other companies in the group included easyJet, easyCar, easyCinema, easy.com, easyMoney and easyValue. He was also in the process of launching new companies such as easyBus, easyPizza, easyCruise, and easyDorm.

Stelios called himself a serial entrepreneur. He acted as a venture capitalist, founding and funding his ideas, turning them into businesses with a long-term intent to take them public.