Viant started in San Francisco as Silicon Valley Internet Partners and moved to Boston within months. It was one of the internet consultancies that big companies hired in a hurry as the web arrived. Viant sent teams of strategists, designers and engineers to plan and build online stores and services. When it went public in June 1999, clients were lining up, and firms like it were among the stock market's favorites.

Strategy, Design and Code

Viant was founded in 1996. In mid-1996 Robert Gett became CEO and moved the headquarters to Boston. The firm's pitch was that one team could handle the business plan, the look of the site and the technology behind it. It opened offices in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles. Its bet was that every large company would need help moving its business online.

When the Clients Stopped Calling

Viant priced its IPO at $16 a share in June 1999 and listed on Nasdaq as VIAN. Much of the demand for firms like Viant came from dot-com startups and from older companies spending to fight them. When the bubble burst in 2000, those budgets vanished. Viant cut staff in several rounds between 2000 and 2002. In 2002 divine bought it in a stock deal worth about $96 million.

Cover: Landscape with Figures Crossing a Bridge, John Rathbone. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for figures crossing a bridge (the passage online).