Two years ago, with online loan ex-change LendingTree burning cash faster than all but 15 of 339 public In-ternet companies, CEO Doug Lebda looked like toast. But with mortgage markets hot, LendingTree's first profits under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) are on tap for the third quarter. "Back then, people were asking: 'Can you survive?'" Lebda says. "Now, the question is: 'How big can you become?'" LendingTree's not alone. Now that the dust is settling, dot-coms that were built to last are whipping the market. BusinessWeek built a basket of Web companies that are profitable (at least by pro forma standards) and whose stocks Wall Street analysts rate buy or better. Our 20-stock Real-World Internet Index is up 3.2% this year (through Aug. 16), compared with an 18.2% decline in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. Real-World Net stocks are up 15.5% for the past 12 months and 5.9% for the past two years, beating the s&p by 36 and 42 points, respectively.
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