Infonet went public owned by six of the world's biggest phone companies, from Japan's KDD to Australia's Telstra. The El Segundo company ran The World Network, a private data network that clients could reach from more than 180 countries. Multinationals used it to link offices on different continents without stitching together a dozen local carriers. When Infonet filed in late 1999, every telecom stock seemed to be climbing, and its owners saw a chance to sell part of their stake.

Born Inside Computer Sciences

Infonet began operations in 1969 as part of Computer Sciences Corporation. Between 1988 and 1992, CSC sold the business to a group of telecom companies. That gave Infonet an odd and useful position. Its owners included KDD, KPN, Swisscom, Telefonica, Telia and Telstra, and it kept close ties with carriers such as Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom. It had local representatives in more than 60 countries. The bet was that global companies wanted one network and one bill, everywhere they did business.

Twenty-One Dollars to Two

Infonet priced its IPO at $21 a share in December 1999 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker IN. The timing was close to the top of the telecom bubble. As the market for network capacity collapsed, the stock fell with it. In November 2004, BT agreed to buy Infonet for $2.06 a share in cash, about $965 million in total. The deal closed in early 2005, and BT renamed the business BT Infonet inside BT Global Services.

Cover: Houses of Parliament, London, Claude Monet. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for the Houses of Parliament in fog (a London future with BT).