SkillSoft went public while its founders' old employer sued it for $400 million. NETg, a training software company, said founder Charles Moran and other former employees took its trade secrets, including the business plan for teaching soft skills on the web. The Nashua, New Hampshire company had started operating in January 1998 and released its first product in March 1999. In February 2000 it priced its IPO at $14 a share anyway.

Courses Built for the Web

SkillSoft was incorporated in Delaware in October 1997 and opened for business in January 1998 with its first round of funding. Warburg, Pincus Ventures was its largest investor. The company sold courses on professional effectiveness and business topics, the subjects trainers call soft skills. Every course ran in a standard web browser, so employees could learn anytime, at any desk. One customer made up 29 percent of its early revenue.

Merged With SmartForce

SkillSoft priced its IPO at $14 a share in February 2000 and listed on Nasdaq as SKIL. It sold 3.1 million shares weeks before the dot-com peak. In 2002 it agreed to merge with SmartForce, a larger e-learning company based in Ireland. Each SkillSoft share became 2.3674 SmartForce American depositary shares, and the combined company was run by executives from both sides. SkillSoft stopped filing as a separate public company in September 2002.

Cover: Schoolmaster with Children, Alexander Voet, I. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a schoolmaster with pupils.