McAfee.com started charging for its online virus clinic on September 2, 1999. By late November it had more than 135,000 paid subscribers. The idea was that a website could guard your computer, scanning it for viruses and tuning it up through a browser instead of a box of disks. Network Associates owned the business and the McAfee name, and in December 1999 it sold a slice to a public hungry for anything ending in .com.

A Spinoff From Network Associates

Network Associates, the security software maker, formed McAfee.com as a subsidiary in December 1998. On January 1, 1999 it moved its consumer online business into the new company. McAfee.com offered the McAfee Clinic, VirusScan and a PC tune-up called Oil Change, and it earned money from subscriptions, banner ads and sponsorships. The bet was that consumers would rent their security online year after year, long before most software worked that way.

Twelve Dollars, Then Home Again

McAfee.com sold 6.25 million Class A shares at $12 each and listed on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol MCAF. Network Associates kept control of the company. In March 2002 the parent launched an exchange offer to buy the shares it did not own. The deal closed later that year, McAfee.com stopped reporting as a public company in September 2002, and its business folded back into the parent.

Cover: The Battle around the Shield and Lance, Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a shield in battle (protection).