New technology spawns still more technology. Such is the case with smart phones. Entrepreneurs have found a way to facilitate buying with your smart phone. Companies like Intuit (INTU) and VeriFone (PAY) have created a card reader that can be inserted into your iPhone (AAPL) or other smart phone. Then you can swipe a credit card through the reader and use it to make online purchases.

The potential of this new technology is enormous. Analysts estimate that the industry will grow to $11 billion this year.

Back in 2000, Verticalnet (NASDAQ: VERT) was a dot-com darling. In fact, I knew several of the key people there – and, yes, they got suddenly very rich (and I've never heard from them since). At one point, Verticalnet was worth in excess of $12 billion.

Basically, the company was a business-to-business (B2B) platform, covering diverse areas like chemicals, logistics, and so on.

If you talked to the analysts back then, the B2B market was expected to be huge. Somehow, companies across the globe would glom onto these networks. In a sense, it was the emergence of a new form of Nasdaq (NASDAQ: NDAQ).

Well, things didn't turn out so well. Last week, Verticalnet sold out for a mere $15.2 million. The buyer is BravoSolution, which is part of Italcementi (a large cement company based in Italy).

Despite this, the B2B business is still a viable thing. For example, Compuware has a thriving business in this sector. Other players include Ariba (NASDAQ: ARBA) and SAP (NYSE: SAP).

But, of course, things are much more tempered now, showing once again that disrupting industries is pretty tough.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.