Applied Micro Circuits was eighteen years old when it went public, an old hand by internet standards. The San Diego chipmaker designed high-speed circuits for the gear that moved data across fiber-optic networks. In November 1997 the internet was swelling, and phone carriers were rebuilding their backbones to carry it. Every new optical switch and router needed chips that could keep up. AMCC sold to the companies that built them.

A San Diego Chip Shop

AMCC was incorporated in California in 1979 and moved its legal home to Delaware in 1987. By its IPO it focused on communications. Its circuits handled the fastest signals inside networking equipment, turning streams of light-speed data into bits a system could read. AMCC's customers were equipment makers, so its fortunes rode on how much carriers spent on their networks.

Eight Dollars to MACOM

AMCC priced its IPO at $8 a share in November 1997. The optical boom sent its stock soaring, and the 2001 bust cut it down. AMCC later bet on server processors built on ARM designs, sold under the X-Gene name. In December 2016 MACOM offered $3.25 in cash plus 0.1089 of a MACOM share for each AMCC share. The deal closed in January 2017, ending AMCC's run on Nasdaq.

Cover: Plan of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, Railroad Circuits Diagram, Daniel Hudson Burnham. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a railroad circuits diagram (circuits).