US to take over the entire Internet

BRENT HOBERMAN, CEO of Lastminute.com told an assembly of 100 Internet entrepreneurs last night how glad he was that he'd resisted the blandishments of firms trying to hire him.

Hoberman said that he'd been approached by many people in the past, but was glad he'd stuck to his last.

"I've had many companies that have offered me a job," he said. One was Pointcast - he said that he found the CEO "very arrogant". He also said he was also glad he never accepted a position from Judy Gibbons at MSN. He didn't say why - Judy's always seemed like a fine person to us.

He revealed that when he and Martha were setting up Lastminute.com, which originally was going to be called lastminutenetworks.com, they took a trip to Stelios' Portakabin trying to get him interested, but with no success.

2,000 people work for Lastminute.com now, Hoberman said.

Bob Geldof, he said, had told him deckchairs.com was after Lastminute, but in the end it had bought deckchairs. In a brief reminiscence about boo.com, he claimed that the firm had lost $80 million in 50 days - which surely must be a record of some kind, if true.

In the future, he said: "The US is going to buy up most of the Internet business". The INQ is waiting for your call, sweet USA...

Hoberman was speaking at this Internet Decade event, jointly organised and hosted by NOP World and the e-consultancy. µ