Prodigy was online before most Americans had heard the word. IBM and Sears started it in 1984, with CBS as an early partner, to sell news, shopping and email to families with a home computer and a modem. It peaked early and lost ground to AOL. By the time it went public in February 1999, Prodigy had remade itself as a plain internet service provider, with Mexico's Telmex as a major shareholder.

IBM and Sears Dial In

The first Prodigy was a closed service with its own screens, banner ads and catalogs. Users paid a monthly fee for news, weather, banking and messages. It signed up more than a million homes but cost its owners a fortune. In 1996 a new investor group bought it and shifted to the open web. The new Prodigy sold dial-up access and bet on its old brand to win customers.

Telmex Takes a Seat

Prodigy priced its IPO at $15 a share in February 1999 and listed on Nasdaq as PRGY. Telmex, run by Carlos Slim's group, bought 2 million shares directly and owned about 19 percent of the company. Prodigy also advised Telmex on its own internet service in Mexico. In 2001 SBC Communications bought out the rest of Prodigy, paying $6.60 a share after raising its first offer.

Cover: The Violin Concert, Edvard Munch. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a violin concert (a prodigy).