Eyeball Wars : a novel of dot-com intrigue - Hardcover

Every decade or so, there comes a book that does more than entertain: it captures the essence of a generation’s hopes, dreams and ambitions. Moving at the blink speed of the Internet, David Meerman Scott’s Eyeball Wars does just that, delighting savvy readers with a gripping and often hilarious tale of a dot-com start-up on a global scale.

Click on Richard Williams, who has it all: youth, wealth, A-list party action and a gorgeous TV-star girlfriend. He’s the third generation of worldwide newspaper dynasty, Williams Media Group, publisher of big city tabloids including The New York Globe, The Sydney Star and The London Post. But Richard’s got a big problem to go with his big assets: his jet-set lifestyle doesn’t fly with his media-baron father. Pierce Williams kicks Richard out of the family business—with nothing but the shell of an Internet company to his name.

Richard links up with Zeke, salesman extraordinaire, and Darcy, self-proclaimed mistress of spin. The IT-age Three Musketeers burst onto the Silicon Valley scene with a wacky new brainchild: freshspot.com, a tabloid website that features scandals, scams, and stripper twins. But as Richard tries to jump-start his start-up, he has to navigate crumbling old-media empires, funding deals gone wrong, and the mutiny of his creative team—all in the looming shadow of his father. Can Richard and his ragtag team make freshspot.com succeed as the hottest, newest, most outrageous site of the year?

Meanwhile, across the globe, Mariko Suzuki faces her own problems: a salary slave at The Kuriyama Corporation, she must find an Internet company to invest in—fast. Mariko battles the seamy side of the Japanese entertainment industry, the pervasive sexism of her bosses and her own company’s TV production division, in her quest for corporate cash—and the fulfillment of her own dreams.

Little does Richard know that the key to a freshspot.com IPO might be in the suit pocket of a bright, sexy young woman struggling in obscurity in corporate Japan...

Racy, riveting and full of memorable characters, Eyeball Wars provides an addictive read that packs a punchy commentary on life in the high-stakes fast lane of the cyberworld.

David Meerman Scott is one of the Internet economy’s true insiders: he’s vice president of marketing for NewsEdge, a global e-content leader and one of the top 40 Internet pure-plays according to Internet World magazine. He’s also held senior management positions at a leading e-commerce company and in the e-content division of one of the world’s largest newspaper chains. Early in his career he clerked on a Wall Street bond trading desk and acted in Japanese television commercials. A graduate of Kenyon College, David has lived in New York, Tokyo, Boston and Hong Kong. He’s an award-winning marketer (Internet Product of the Year Award), an award-winning writer (Gold Quill Award) and an award-winning PR pro (Platinum PR Award).