Bottomline's first product let companies print their own checks on laser printers, with no pre-printed check stock to steal. LaserCheck for DOS came out in 1989. By the time the New Hampshire company filed to go public in 1998, it had become one of the largest resellers of Xerox magnetic ink products. It had also bought its way into electronic payments. Corporate finance departments were moving off paper, and Bottomline wanted to handle the payments whichever way they went.

Checks Without Check Stock

Daniel M. McGurl co-founded Bottomline in May 1989 and served as chairman, president and chief executive. In 1992 it struck a deal with Xerox to sell an advanced laser printer and new magnetic ink toners. It moved LaserCheck to Windows and added software to fight check fraud. In 1996 it bought CertiSoft Solutions, which made software for secure electronic payments. That gave Bottomline a path from paper to electronic payments.

EPAY at Thirteen Dollars

Bottomline priced its IPO at $13 a share in February 1999 and listed on the Nasdaq National Market under the fitting ticker EPAY. The offering raised $44.2 million. Over the next two decades it added banking software and payment networks for businesses in the United States and Britain. In 2022 the private equity firm Thoma Bravo took Bottomline private, and its shares left Nasdaq that May.

Cover: A Brig at Anchor, Francis Seymour Haden. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a ship at anchor (the bottom line).