Virata started life in a university town, as a spin-out from the Olivetti Research Laboratory in Cambridge, England. By 1999 it ran its business from Santa Clara, California, and sold the chips and software inside DSL modems. DSL squeezed fast internet out of the copper phone lines already running into homes. Phone companies were racing to sell it. Virata went public that November, and its stock nearly doubled on day one.

From Olivetti's Lab

Virata was incorporated in June 1993 in Cambridge as a spin-out from the Olivetti Research Laboratory, which later became part of AT&T. It spent its first two years developing technology. The company found its market in DSL, the service that let a phone line carry data and a voice call at once. Virata sold modem makers a chip together with the software to run it, so they could ship faster. It kept engineering teams in Cambridge and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Fourteen to Twenty-Seven

Virata sold 5 million shares at $14 in November 1999 and listed on Nasdaq as VRTA. The stock rose to about $27 on its first day. The DSL rush lifted it higher, then the telecom crash cut orders. In 2001 Virata merged with GlobeSpan, a rival chipmaker, in an all-stock deal, with each Virata share swapped for 1.02 GlobeSpan shares. The combined company, GlobeSpanVirata, called itself the world's largest supplier of DSL chips and software.

Cover: King's College Chapel, Cambridge, South Entrance, William Henry Fox Talbot. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for King's College Chapel, Cambridge (Virata's birthplace).