Netscape became the first major Internet company to complete an initial public offering in August 1995.
Netscape Communications held its IPO on August 9, 1995. The company priced its shares at $28, but strong demand drove the opening price to $71 before the stock closed at $58.25. The dramatic debut became an emblem of the emerging dot-com economy.
Netscape’s main product was Netscape Navigator, a web browser that helped popularize the World Wide Web for ordinary users. Its browser business also placed the company in direct competition with Microsoft, which later bundled Internet Explorer with Windows.
Yahoo, Amazon, and eBay also became major Internet companies, but their public offerings occurred later. Netscape’s IPO is often treated as a symbolic starting point for the late-1990s Internet investment boom, although Internet businesses had existed before it.