CoSine Communications closed its first day of trading at $63.06, up 174 percent from its $23 offering price. It was one of the most hyped networking startups of the boom. CoSine built large systems that let telecom carriers offer business customers firewalls and private networks from inside the carrier's own network. It went public in September 2000, near the top of the telecom bubble. At the close of that first day, the market valued it at about $6.3 billion.

Security Sold as a Service

CoSine bet that carriers would sell security and networking as services. Businesses would then not need to buy and run their own equipment. Its systems let one carrier serve many customers from shared hardware, an idea that looked ahead to later cloud services. Large carriers in the United States and abroad tested its systems. The plan depended on carriers with money to spend on new equipment.

After the Wave Broke

CoSine priced its IPO at $23 a share in September 2000 and listed on Nasdaq. Goldman Sachs led the offering, which raised about $230 million. Months later the telecom market collapsed, and carriers stopped buying. Revenue never came close to the hopes set at the offering. In 2004 the company wound down its operations. What remained was a shell company that held on to its cash.

Cover: Awa Province: Naruto Whirlpools (Awa, Naruto no fuha), from the series "Famous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces (Rokujuyoshu meisho zue)", Utagawa Hiroshige. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for the Naruto whirlpools (riding the wave).