InterVU sold internet video in 1997, when most people watched the web through a dial-up modem. The small company from Solana Beach, near San Diego, ran a network that stored and streamed video for websites, so a news site or a record label could add clips without building its own servers. It had launched that network in December 1996. When InterVU went public in November 1997, online video was jerky and postage-stamp sized, and InterVU was betting that would change.

A Network for Clips

InterVU was incorporated in Delaware in August 1995, and Harry Gruber led it as chairman and chief executive. Its service took video from content owners, encoded it and delivered it to viewers from InterVU's own servers. Websites paid for that delivery. Content owners avoided the cost of running their own video servers. The business depended on faster connections arriving before its cash ran out.

Folded Into Akamai

InterVU priced its IPO at $9.50 a share in November 1997 on Nasdaq. It raised more money in later offerings as it expanded its network. In early 2000 Akamai, the content delivery company, agreed to buy InterVU in an all-stock deal to add streaming media to its service. The acquisition closed in April 2000, near the top of the dot-com market, and InterVU became part of Akamai.

Cover: On Stage III, Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a stage performance (video viewing).