The biggest IPO in American history up to then came wrapped in a red brushstroke logo. In April 1996 AT&T sold a slice of its equipment arm as Lucent Technologies, raising about $3 billion at $27 a share. Lucent got the switches, the phones, the network gear and about three-quarters of Bell Labs, the research house behind the transistor. AT&T kept 82.4 percent of the stock and promised to hand the rest to its own shareholders by the end of the year.

AT&T Splits in Three

In 1995 AT&T decided to break itself into three companies. Lucent took the business of building telephone networks. It sold switching systems, transmission gear, business phone systems and home phones, mostly to the regional Bell companies that had once been part of AT&T. Its 1995 revenue was $21.4 billion. The bet was simple. A gear maker free of AT&T could win orders from phone companies that refused to buy from a rival.

From Bubble Giant to Penny Stock

Lucent priced at $27 a share in April 1996 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange as LU. AT&T spun off its remaining stake that fall. The stock climbed for years and became one of the most widely held in America. Then the telecom boom ended, carriers stopped buying, and the shares fell below $1 in 2002. Lucent merged with France's Alcatel in 2006. Nokia bought Alcatel-Lucent in 2016, and the lab became Nokia Bell Labs.

Cover: The Evening Bell of the Clock (Tokei no bansho), from the series "Eight Views of the Parlor (Zashiki hakkei)", Suzuki Harunobu. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for an evening bell (Bell Labs).