Intraware started as a software reseller, and the tool it built to track licenses outlived the rest of the business. Business software in 1999 still arrived in boxes, on CDs, with license keys printed on paper. Intraware, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, resold software from major vendors and delivered it over the internet. It went public in February 1999, betting that companies would download their software instead of unpacking it.

SubscribeNet Takes Over

The bet was that software delivery and licensing were messy enough to be a business of their own. Intraware built a service called SubscribeNet. It let software makers deliver products and updates to customers and track who was entitled to what. Its customers included large companies that bought software from many vendors. Over time SubscribeNet became more important than the reselling business.

Four Dollars a Share

Intraware priced its offering at $16 a share in February 1999. The stock rose in the boom and then fell hard. The company dropped reselling and focused on SubscribeNet, selling it to software makers as a service. In January 2009 Acresso Software, later renamed Flexera, acquired Intraware for $4.00 a share in cash, about $27 million in all. SubscribeNet lived on inside Flexera's licensing products.

Cover: Thames Warehouses, James McNeill Whistler. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for warehouses on the river (software warehouse).