Digex started life as Digital Express Group, founded in 1990 by a group of early internet enthusiasts in Maryland. By 1996 it had stopped chasing home dial-up users and sold only to businesses and government agencies, which needed fast, always-on connections and a safe place to run their web servers. It had built its own high-speed backbone around the continental United States. That October, as companies rushed to get online, Digex went public at $10.125 a share.

Businesses Only

The company took its first major outside investment in March 1995 and then turned its focus entirely to business customers. It sold leased-line connections, hosting for customers' web servers, and security products. In the first half of 1996 it brought in an experienced management team and finished a DS-3 backbone ring across the country. Its line and server accounts grew from about 65 in April 1995 to roughly 1,050 by the time of its filing.

Bought Within a Year

Digex listed on Nasdaq under DIGX in October 1996. Less than a year later, in June 1997, the telecom carrier Intermedia Communications agreed to buy it through a cash tender offer at $13 a share. Intermedia built Digex into a large web hosting business and later sold part of it to the public again. Through Intermedia, the Digex business ended up inside WorldCom.

Cover: Fujieda station on the Tokaido, Katsushika Hokusai. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a relay station on the road (digital express).