Proxicom's stock quadrupled in six months, so the company went back and sold more at $52.38 a share. It had gone public in April 1999 at $13. The Reston, Virginia firm built internet systems for Global 1000 companies, and by the end of 1998 it had finished more than 600 client projects. For the October 1999 sale, Intel planned to buy 100,000 of the new shares.

Internet Only, Since 1994

Raul Fernandez founded Proxicom in 1991 and ran it as chief executive. Before that he directed emerging technologies at Digicon, a government contractor. From 1994 on, Proxicom worked only on the internet. It sold a four-step method, the Proxicom Process, that mixed strategy, technology and creative design. Teams were organized by industry: energy and telecom, financial services, retail and manufacturing, and service businesses. At the end of 1998 it had about 150 projects underway.

From $13 to Compaq

Proxicom priced its IPO at $13 a share in April 1999 and listed on Nasdaq as PXCM. The October follow-on at $52.38 raised money for the company and for selling shareholders. Then the dot-com bust hit internet consulting firms hard. In 2001 Compaq Computer agreed to buy Proxicom through a tender offer at $5.75 a share in cash. The deal closed that summer, and Proxicom's shares left the public market in June 2001.

Cover: Nelson's Column under Construction, Trafalgar Square, London, William Henry Fox Talbot. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a monument under construction (building the web).