The company that became Beyond.com was first called CyberSource. In 1997 it split in two. The payments business kept the CyberSource name, and the store became software.net. It sold software over the internet and, for many titles, delivered it as a download. When it went public in June 1998, buying software meant driving to a store for a shrink-wrapped box. software.net bet that the people already online were exactly the people who bought software.

A Store Split From CyberSource

William McKiernan and John Pettitt founded the company in August 1994, and it began selling software on its website that November. The company built its own tools for credit card processing, fraud screening and electronic delivery. In December 1997 it spun those tools off as CyberSource Corporation so the store could focus on selling. For many titles, a customer could pay and start downloading in minutes.

Into Chapter 11

software.net sold 5 million shares at $9 each in June 1998 and listed on Nasdaq as SWNT. It renamed itself Beyond.com and spent heavily on advertising to compete with retail chains and other online stores. Losses mounted after the dot-com crash. Beyond.com filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2002 and sold its online store business to Digital River. CyberSource, the spun-off payments company, later became part of Visa.

Cover: The Gulf of Salerno, Joseph Wright of Derby. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a bay opening to the far horizon (going beyond).