Sycamore Networks closed its first trading day above $184 a share, which gave a year-old company a market value in the tens of billions. Carriers were laying fiber as fast as they could, sure that internet traffic would double every few months. Sycamore promised to make that fiber smarter. Its optical switches could set up and change high-speed connections through software instead of by hand. Few companies captured the fiber dream so completely.

The Cascade Team, Again

Desh Deshpande and Daniel Smith, who had built Cascade Communications together, founded Sycamore in 1998. They bet that optical networks needed intelligence. Carriers then configured fixed connections over weeks. With Sycamore's switches, they could provision bandwidth in minutes. That promised to turn raw fiber into a flexible service and to save carriers large sums in equipment and labor. Carriers lined up to try it.

Cash Outlasts the Customers

Sycamore priced at $38 a share in October 1999 and soared on its first day. When the telecom bubble burst, carrier spending collapsed, and Sycamore's sales collapsed with it. The money it had raised in the boom kept it alive long after its customers stopped buying. The company held large cash reserves for years. In 2013 it sold its remaining business and began to dissolve, returning cash to shareholders.

Cover: The Sycamore, David Young Cameron. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a single sycamore tree.