Steel Connect, Inc. is an American company that provides

supply chain management In commerce, supply chain management (SCM) deals with a system of procurement (purchasing raw materials/components), operations management, logistics and marketing channels, through which raw materials can be developed into finished produc ...

services to software companies.

History

The company was formed in 1968 as College Marketing Group by Glenn and Gail Mathews. At first, the company sold mailing lists of university faculty to textbook publishers. In 1986, after a leveraged buyout, David Wetherell became CEO, and the company became known as CMGI, Inc. In February 1994, the company became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

. That same month, Wetherell founded

BookLink AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. The service traces its history to an online ...

, in which the company invested $900,000. BookLink was sold to

America Online AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo! Inc. The service tra ...

in November 1994, and the company used the proceeds of the sale to set up CMG @Ventures, a

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

firm that invested in internet companies. The company invested $1 million for an 80% ownership interest in

Lycos Lycos, Inc. (stylized as LYCOS), is a web search engine and web portal established in 1994, spun out of Carnegie Mellon University. Lycos also encompasses a network of email, web hosting, social networking, and entertainment websites. The company ...

, which was its most profitable investment. In 1997, the company invested in

Geocities GeoCities, later Yahoo! GeoCities, was a web hosting service that allowed users to create and publish websites for free and to browse user-created websites by their theme or interest, active from 1994 to 2009. GeoCities was started in November 1 ...

and it also formed Navisite. In June 1999, the company agreed to acquire an 83% stake in

AltaVista AltaVista was a web search engine established in 1995. It became one of the most-used early search engines, but lost ground to Google and was purchased by Yahoo! in 2003, which retained the brand, but based all AltaVista searches on its own sear ...

from

Compaq Compaq Computer Corporation was an American information technology, information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced some of the first IBM PC compati ...

for $2.3 billion. In September 1999, the company acquired AdForce, founded by Chad Steelberg, for $500 million. In November 1999, Altavista acquired RagingBull.com after Wetherell noticed the website while on vacation. During the

dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...

, the company, which was then known as CMGI, Inc., had a

market capitalization Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by ...

of $41 billion and owned the naming rights to the new home stadium of the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...

. Between 1995 and 1999, it had the best-performing stock in the United States, returning 4,921%. After the crash of the bubble, the stock price fell 99%. In March 2000, the company acquired Yesmail. In April 2000, the company acquired

uBid uBid.com was an online auction style and fixed-price shopping website offering goods sold directly by the company and items sold by pre-approved third-party merchants. The site specialized in excess new, refurbished, and overstock consumer elec ...

. In May 2000, the company acquired Tallan, Inc. for $920M. In August 2000, the company agreed to pay $7.6 million per year for 15 years for the naming rights of the home stadium of the

. In August 2002, after the bursting of the

, the company modified the agreement and the stadium name was changed to

Gillette Stadium Gillette Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in Foxborough, Massachusetts, United States. The stadium is southwest of Downtown Boston and 18 miles (29 km) northeast of Providence, Rhode Island. It serves as the home stadium and admi ...

. In 2000, the company recorded a $661 million gain when

Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...

acquired its interest in

GeoCities GeoCities, later Yahoo! GeoCities, was a web hosting service that allowed users to create and publish websites for free and to browse user-created websites by their theme or interest, active from 1994 to 2009. GeoCities was started in November 1 ...

. By that time, its stock price had declined 78% from its high earlier in the year. In February 2004, the company acquired Modus Media. In September 2008, the company changed its name to ModusLink Global Solutions, Inc. In December 2017, the company acquired IWCO Direct for $476 million in cash. In February 2018, the company changed its name to Steel Connect, Inc. In May 2023, Steel Holdingss acquired majority control of the company and infused $200 million of cash into the company.

References

External links

* {{Dot-com Bubble 1968 establishments in Massachusetts Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq 2025 mergers and acquisitions Dot-com bubble Online companies of the United States Software companies based in Massachusetts Waltham, Massachusetts Software companies of the United States