Genuity's network traced back to BBN, the Cambridge firm that built the first routers of the ARPANET. By 2000 it belonged to GTE and carried a large share of America's internet traffic. Then GTE agreed to merge with Bell Atlantic, and regulators stood in the way. Bell Atlantic could not own a long-distance internet backbone. So GTE sold most of Genuity to the public in one of the largest IPOs the market had seen.

BBN's Wires, GTE's Money

GTE bought BBN in 1997 to get into the internet business. It joined BBN's backbone with Genuity, a web hosting company it had also acquired, and kept the Genuity name. The combined company sold dial-up access, private networks, and hosting to big companies and other internet providers. GTE kept a small stake and the option to take control again later. The plan depended on traffic growing fast enough to fill an expensive new fiber network.

$1.9 Billion, Then a Slide

Genuity priced its IPO at $11 a share in June 2000, below its planned range of $12 to $14. It sold 173.9 million shares and raised about $1.9 billion. The stock fell 14.5 percent on its first day. Verizon, the company formed by the merger, never took back control. As the telecom bust deepened, Genuity ran short of cash. It filed for bankruptcy in November 2002, and Level 3 Communications bought most of its business in February 2003.

Cover: Untitled (Ruins of an Aqueduct), Robert MacPherson. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a Roman aqueduct (a backbone that carries the flow).