eMachines put the first branded PC under $400 on American store shelves in November 1998, two months after the company was formed. Within about a year it had sold more than two million of them. About half its buyers had never owned a computer. When eMachines filed to go public in early 2000, it pitched itself as more than a box maker. It wanted to earn money from ads shown to all those new users.

Korean Factories, Cheap Towers

Two Korean companies stood behind eMachines. TriGem Computer built all of its eTower PCs, and Korea Data Systems was another major backer. Stephen Dukker ran the company as chief executive. In 1999 eMachines sold the third-largest number of desktop PCs through American retailers. It bought FreePC, an idealab! startup that gave away computers in exchange for ads. The bet was that a cheap PC could open a door to the buyer for years.

Nine Dollars, Then One

eMachines priced at $9 a share in March 2000 and listed on Nasdaq as EEEE. The timing could hardly have been worse. Ad money dried up as the dot-com bubble burst, and price wars squeezed every PC maker. In November 2001 Lap Shun (John) Hui, a major shareholder, offered $1.06 a share to buy out the public holders, and eMachines went private. Gateway bought the company in 2004.

Cover: Zimmerman and His Machine, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a rider and his machine (a cheap home computer).