IPG Photonics started in Russia in 1990, in the last days of the Soviet Union. Physicist Valentin Gapontsev bet that lasers built from optical fiber could replace the big gas lasers that cut and weld metal. Fiber lasers were smaller, lasted longer and used less power. By 2006 IPG had plants in Massachusetts, Germany and Russia, and its sales had passed $100 million in nine months. That December, it went public on Nasdaq.

From Fryazino to Massachusetts

Gapontsev began IPG's operations in Russia in 1990 and incorporated the company in Delaware in 1998. Its main factories sat in Oxford, Massachusetts; Burbach, Germany; and Fryazino, Russia. IPG made almost every part of its lasers itself, including the diodes that pump light into the fiber. Its target was the materials-processing market, long held by CO2 gas lasers and crystal lasers. In 2005 it had net sales of $96.4 million.

A Laser Maker on Nasdaq

IPG first filed to go public in 2000 and withdrew. It tried again and priced 9 million shares at $16.50 on December 12, 2006. The stock listed on Nasdaq as IPGP. Gapontsev, other directors and funds tied to Merrill Lynch sold some of their shares in the deal. Fiber lasers went on to take a large share of industrial cutting and welding. IPG remains public on Nasdaq under IPGP.

Cover: The Forge, James McNeill Whistler. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a blacksmith's forge (cutting and welding metal).