Gates: Internet firms riding a 'mini bubble'

C|Net | at | by Mike

A "mini bubble" has emerged among Internet companies, but it likely won't reach the level of the previous dot-com boom, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said.

"We are back in a mini-bubble era in terms of people expecting a lot of these valuations, but I don't think we'll see the same amount of exits the way we did," Gates said on Friday at the software giant's fifth annual online advertising conference, in response to a question.