Acacia's stock jumped 35 percent on its first day in May 2016, in the year's first venture-backed tech IPO. The Maynard, Massachusetts company made the chips and modules that turn data into pulses of light and send them across fiber optic lines, long haul and inside data centers. Cloud giants and telecom carriers needed far more bandwidth every year without laying new cable. Acacia sold them a way to squeeze more data out of the fiber they already had.

Silicon That Speaks Light

Acacia was founded in 2009 and shipped its first products in 2011. It combined two hard technologies. One was a digital signal processor that cleaned up the signal as light traveled hundreds of miles. The other was silicon photonics, which built optical parts with the same factories that make computer chips. Acacia packed both into modules that network equipment makers plugged into their gear. Its biggest customers were a handful of large equipment makers.

Cisco Raises Its Bid

Acacia priced its IPO at $23 a share in May 2016 on Nasdaq, at the top of its range. In July 2019 Cisco agreed to buy Acacia for about $2.6 billion. The deal stalled while it waited for approval in China. In January 2021 Cisco raised its offer to $115 a share, about $4.5 billion. The purchase closed on March 1, 2021.

Cover: Rocks at the Lighthouse, Biarritz, Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a lighthouse on the rocks (light across distance).