Net Perceptions was a leading seller of personalization technology during the Internet boom of the late 1990s. It was based in
Edina, Minnesota
Edina ( ) is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States and a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis. The population was 53,494 at the 2020 census, making it the 18th most populous city in Minnesota.
Edina began as a small farming and mil ...
.
[ One of their first customers was ]Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...
.
History
In the Summer of 1996, David Gardiner, a former Ph.D. student of John Riedl
John Thomas Riedl (January 16, 1962 – July 15, 2013) was an American computer scientist and the McKnight Distinguished Professor at the University of Minnesota. His published works include highly influential research on the social web, recommen ...
, introduced Riedl to Steven Snyder. Snyder had been an early employee at Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
, but had left Microsoft to come to Minnesota to do a Ph.D. in Psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
. He realized the commercial potential of collaborative filtering
Collaborative filtering (CF) is a technique used by recommender systems.Francesco Ricci and Lior Rokach and Bracha ShapiraIntroduction to Recommender Systems Handbook Recommender Systems Handbook, Springer, 2011, pp. 1-35 Collaborative filtering ...
, and encouraged the team to found a company in April 1996. By June, Gardiner, Snyder, Miller, Riedl, and Konstan incorporated their company, and by July had their first round of funding, from Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
Hummer Winblad Venture Partners is an American software and web focused venture capital firm based in San Francisco, California. Its founders include John Hummer and Ann Winblad. The firm was an early investor in Napster, the first popular file ...
. Net Perceptions went on to be one of the leading companies in personalization during the Internet boom
The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet.
Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...
of the late 1990s, went public on March 29, 2000 offering 2,000,000 shares of common stock, resulting in net proceeds to the company of $84.8 million, with 26,297,863 outstanding shares,[
] had 400 employees and stock at $60 per share,[
] and acquired marketing services startup KD1 for $126 million. Then over time the stock lost 95 percent of its value, and it laid off most employees.[
] and returned about $40 million to stockholders that same year.[
]
Move to Connecticut
In 2004, Kanders & Co. bought the company and moved it to Greenwich, Connecticut
Greenwich (, ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Conne ...
References
American companies established in 1996
Digital marketing companies of the United States
Software companies based in Connecticut
Companies based in Edina, Minnesota
Defunct software companies of the United States
{{US-internet-company-stub