Martha Lane Fox, the co-founder of Lastminute.com who became a symbol of the glamour and excitement of the dotcom boom, yesterday quit her job at the age of 30. She made only one promise about her next move: she will not start another business.
Her shares in the company are worth £25m and she announced her resignation as managing director on the day Lastminute reported its first full year of profits, ignoring one-off items and goodwill write-offs.
The figure was below City expectations - just £200,000 compared to forecasts of more than £7m - and contributed to a 17% slump in the share price. The Istanbul bombings, which hit the values of all travel-related companies, was another factor behind the fall.
Ms Lane Fox, who will continue as a non-executive director, said the move into profitability was an ideal moment to give up executive duties at the firm she launched with Brent Hoberman, who will remain chief executive.
"Anybody who knows me would know that I've always said I had finite time in the business," she said. "Lastminute was Brent's idea and when we started the business I said there would be a time when I would leave. I feel immensely lucky to be involved, but I need to know whether I can do something on my own.
"I don't know what it is yet, but I do know it doesn't involve starting another business. I don't think it would be possible to replicate the excitement of Lastminute."
Ms Lane Fox originally dismissed Mr Hoberman's business plan for Lastminute as "far too complicated" but quickly changed her mind. The pair quit their jobs in early 1998 and floated the company in March 2000, only days before the peak of the stock market and the beginning of the end of the dotcom bubble. Later that year the company received another boost when Allan Leighton agreed to become chairman.
The personal publicity surrounding Ms Lane Fox ensured that both she and Lastminute became household names. She was named by Tatler as one of the 10 most eligible women in Britain and appeared on Question Time.
She has often complained about the attention, but admitted yesterday that it has helped the business. "Do I think it's good that you guys helped build our brand for us? Of course. I'm cynical enough to know that being young and blonde, and not middle-aged and in a suit, helps. But we've really worked hard to get this business not about one individual in particular."
Lastminute's shares fell sharply after flotation, as with other dotcom stocks, but its recovery has been strong. In 2002 it was the best performing share of the year, though it has yet to recover to its float price of 380p.
Even after yesterday's 51.5p fall to 248.5p, Lastminute is still valued at £738m. That is about half the market capitalisation of EMI, the world's fourth largest music company.
Some 85% of Lastminute's transactions, which last year more than doubled to £552m, come from sales of airline tickets, despite its attempts to promote other products. It blamed exceptional spending on new computer systems for the difference between reported profits and City forecasts.
Ms Lane Fox, who has recently helped Reprieve, the charity that helps prisoners on death row, will give up executive duties at the end of the year and can afford to take her time choosing what to do next.
"I might become a newspaper sub-editor and write the headlines," she said. And what would she choose as a headline for yesterday's news? "Lastminute moves into profit."
