How the Internet Became Commercial: Innovation, Privatization, and the Birth of a New Network

by Shane Greenstein,
The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 21, 2016

In 1994, Charles Ferguson, a founder of Vermeer, a company aspiring to develop software tools and Internet applications for the newly emerging World Wide Web, had a difficult time attracting investors. In about a year, however, Vermeer auctioned itself off in a bidding war between Microsoft and Netscape, making Ferguson - and the company's investors - immensely wealthy.