ON24 waited 23 years to go public, and then the whole world moved online at once. The San Francisco company started in 1998 under the name NewsDirect. It grew into the platform that businesses used for webinars and virtual events. When the pandemic cancelled trade shows in 2020, marketers had nowhere else to meet buyers. ON24 powered more than 159,000 webinars and other online events in the first nine months of that year, and it tracked who watched.

From NewsDirect to Webinars

Sharat Sharan co-founded the company in January 1998 as NewsDirect, and it took the name ON24 a year later. Sharan served as chief executive from the start. The bet was that companies would talk to their customers through online video, and that every click during a webinar was a signal. ON24 sold its platform to business marketers. It gave their sales teams lists of the most engaged viewers.

Back to the Conference Hall

ON24 priced at $50 a share and began trading on the NYSE in February 2021 under the ticker ONTF. The stock rose about 42 percent on its first day. Then offices and conference halls reopened, and demand for virtual events cooled. The shares fell far below the offer price. In December 2025 ON24 agreed to sell itself to Cvent, the event software company, for $8.10 a share in cash. The deal closed on April 1, 2026.

Cover: The Spectators, Honoré-Victorin Daumier. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a crowd facing a screen (the webinar audience).