Calico Commerce went from its stock offering to bankruptcy court in a little over two years. Its software guided buyers through choosing a computer server or a phone system, where many options had to fit together. The result was a correct configuration and a correct price. When Calico filed to go public in the fall of 1999, companies were rushing to sell complex products on the web. They needed tools to do it without errors.

Rules Behind a Product Line

Calico bet that interactive selling would move to the web, and that configuration would be its hardest part. Its software captured the rules behind a product line, so a buyer could not order a combination that would not work. It sold mainly to technology and telecom companies with big, complex catalogs and long sales cycles. Many of its customers were Silicon Valley hardware firms.

Restated, Sold, Bankrupt

Calico priced at $14 a share in October 1999. The fall of e-business spending in 2000 and 2001 hit it hard, and it restated its results for three quarters. In 2001 it sold its MarketMaker exchange business to Digital River. That December, Calico filed for Chapter 11. In February 2002 PeopleSoft bought its software and intellectual property for $5 million.

Cover: Summer: Cat on a Balustrade, Théophile-Alexandre Pierre Steinlen. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a cat on a balustrade (the calico).