Verio assembled its network by buying it, one local internet provider at a time. In the mid-1990s thousands of small companies sold web access and hosting in their own towns, and none had the money to grow. Verio, based in Englewood, Colorado, set out to buy the best of them and join them under one name. When it went public in May 1998, small businesses were just starting to need websites and email. Verio wanted to be their provider.

A Roll-Up From Colorado

Verio was incorporated on March 1, 1996, for one purpose: to buy independent internet providers that served business customers. Its pitch to small and medium businesses was simple. They had no tech staff of their own, so Verio would run their connections, web hosting, and email. Local teams kept their customers, while Verio supplied the money, the national network, and the back office.

Sixty Dollars From Tokyo

Verio sold shares at $23 in May 1998, on Nasdaq under the ticker VRIO. It kept buying smaller providers and became one of the largest web hosting companies in the country. In May 2000 Japan's NTT Communications agreed to buy Verio for $60 a share in cash. The deal, worth about $5.5 billion, closed later that year, and Verio became NTT's American internet arm.

Cover: The Spanish Peaks, William Henry Jackson. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for Colorado peaks (a Rocky Mountain roll-up).