Before a router maker ships a box, someone has to pound it with more traffic than the real world will send. Ixia built the machines that did the pounding. Each system held cards that pretended to be a large network, sending and measuring streams of data over fiber and copper. In October 2000, as the telecom boom crested, the Calabasas company went public selling test gear to the companies building the internet.

A Chassis Full of Imaginary Users

Ixia was incorporated in California in May 1997. Errol Ginsberg, a networking engineer, ran it as president. Jean-Claude Asscher, who had founded the French electronics company Tekelec-Airtronic in 1961, served as chairman and principal shareholder. Ixia's systems tested gear for fast optical networks and Gigabit Ethernet. The bet was that every jump in network speed would send equipment makers back to buy faster testers.

Thirteen Dollars, Then Keysight

Ixia priced at $13 a share in October 2000 and listed on Nasdaq as XXIA. The telecom crash that followed hit its customers hard, but Ixia stayed in business and kept growing. Over the years it bought other testing and network visibility companies. In January 2017 Keysight Technologies agreed to buy Ixia for $19.65 a share in cash. The deal closed that April, and Ixia's name lives on as a Keysight brand.

Cover: The Superb Lily, from The Temple of Flora, Richard Earlom. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a lily in bloom (the ixia flower).