OpenTV's software ran on more than 4.5 million set-top boxes when it went public, most of them outside the United States. Twenty-two TV operators in 17 countries had picked it to make their channels interactive. Right before the IPO, America Online, News Corporation, Time Warner, General Instrument, Liberty Digital and Sun Microsystems all bought in. In November 1999, the company was a bet that television would become the next internet.

Born at Thomson and Sun

OpenTV began in July 1996 as Thomson Sun Interactive, a venture of the French electronics maker Thomson and Sun Microsystems. The South African media group MIH later took a controlling stake. OpenTV's software sat in two places: at the broadcaster, where it streamed data, and inside the viewer's box, where it ran the apps. The bet was that every TV operator would need an operating system for its boxes, and OpenTV would be it.

Twenty Dollars in Two Markets

OpenTV priced at $20 a share in November 1999 and listed on Nasdaq and in Amsterdam as OPTV. Interactive television grew slower than the hype. Liberty Media bought control from MIH in 2002, and OpenTV absorbed rivals along the way. In 2009 the Swiss security company Kudelski offered $1.55 a share for the stock it did not already own. OpenTV left Nasdaq in 2010.

Cover: Lower Box at the Theater, Jean Louis Forain. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for an audience in a theater box (watching a show).