Andover.net owned Slashdot, the site that called itself "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters." Its readers argued in the comments all day about Linux, open source and the tech industry. In December 1999 Linux was the hottest word on Wall Street, and Andover.net went public with a network built for exactly that crowd. It even sold its shares through an online auction, a method that let ordinary investors bid alongside the big funds.

A Software Shop Buys Slashdot

The company started in Massachusetts in 1992 as Andover Advanced Technologies, a small packaged software publisher. It moved toward an advertising business on the web and, between June and August 1999, bought Slashdot.org, Freshmeat.net and Animation Factory. Its network also included ThinkGeek. Slashdot's readers wrote much of its content by commenting on posted stories. The bet was that programmers made a loyal audience that tech advertisers would pay to reach.

Sold by Auction, Sold Again

Andover.net priced its offering at $18 a share on December 8, 1999, through WR Hambrecht's OpenIPO auction, and listed on Nasdaq as ANDN. Two months later VA Linux Systems, which had just staged a record IPO of its own, agreed to buy it for stock. The deal closed in June 2000. Slashdot changed owners several times after that, and the site still runs.

Cover: Reading the Newspaper, No.2, Mary Cassatt. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for reading the morning paper (news for nerds).