Sunrise Telecom's stock jumped 169 percent on its first day of trading in July 2000. The San Jose company made handheld and rack-mounted testers for the technicians who checked telephone and cable lines, found faults and confirmed that service worked. Carriers were building new networks across the country, and test gear was in demand. Telecom equipment stocks were still near their highs.

A Tester for Each Network

Sunrise bet that each new network technology would need new tools to test it, from older digital phone lines to DSL, fiber and cable. It built a broad range of instruments and sold them to carriers and equipment makers. Its testers worked in labs and in the field. The work was steady, and it rose and fell with how much carriers chose to spend.

A Long Afternoon

Sunrise Telecom priced its IPO at $15 a share in July 2000 and listed on Nasdaq. Carrier spending fell sharply the next year. In 2005 Nasdaq delisted the company after it failed to file reports during an internal investigation into its Korean unit. It moved to the over-the-counter market. In 2013 VeEX bought most of its operating assets, and its products lived on under the new owner.

Cover: View of Mount Fuji at sunrise on New Year's Day, Isoda Koryusai. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for Mount Fuji at sunrise.