E2open started in 2000 as a venture backed by a group of corporate investors, at the peak of the B2B exchange craze, and it outlived nearly all of that craze's companies. By its 2012 IPO, the Foster City company ran a cloud network where manufacturers and their trading partners shared orders, forecasts and inventory. Customers included Boeing, Cisco, Dell, IBM, Motorola and Vodafone. Dell and RIM each made up more than 10 percent of its revenue.

Twelve Years to Market

E2open began operations in 2000 as a venture between strategic corporate investors, financial investors and advisors. In 2003 it was incorporated in Delaware and merged with the original E2open, LLC. The idea was a network effect. Every new supplier or shipper that joined made the network more useful for the next customer. Big electronics makers outsourced most of their manufacturing, so they needed to see orders and stock across dozens of outside partners.

Fifteen Dollars, Then Insight

E2open priced at $15 a share in July 2012 and listed on Nasdaq as EOPN. It sold more stock in a second offering in January 2014. Losses continued, and the shares fell. In early 2015, Insight Venture Partners bought E2open through a tender offer at $8.60 a share in cash, and the stock left Nasdaq in March 2015. Insight then built E2open into a larger supply chain software company through acquisitions.

Cover: Harbor Scene with Rising Sun, Claude Lorrain. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a harbor at sunrise (goods moving between partners).