UUNET - Timeline

Timeline

  • 1987 – UUNET Communications Services is founded and passes its first traffic via the CompuServe Network on 12 May using UUCP (Unix to Unix Copy Protocol).
  • 1989 – UUNET becomes a for-profit corporation
  • 1990 – UUNET launches AlterNet
  • 1991 – UUNET participates in the founding of the Commercial Internet Exchange Association
  • 1994 – Microsoft paid $16.4 million for a 15 percent share of the company
  • 1995 – In May, UUNET is listed on the NASDAQ stock market in an initial public offering that would become part of the beginning of the dot-com boom.
  • 1995 – UUNET Technologies Inc places a takeover bid against Unipalm Pipex.
  • 1996 – UUNET Technologies agreed to a merger with the Microsoft backed MSF Communications Company.
  • 1996 – Metropolitan Fiber Systems (MFS) acquires UUNET for $2 Billion on August 12th, 1996. This marked the day UUNET stopped existing as an independent company.
  • 1996 – WorldCom acquires MFS on New Year's Eve – 31 Dec. at 11:58 p.m EST for $12.4 billion
  • 1997 – Usenet death penalty (UDP) issued against UUNET, and lifted a week later
  • 1997 – On 10 November, WorldCom and MCI announced their US$37 billion merger including combining internetMCI & UUNET Internet operations.
  • 1998 – The combined MCI WorldCom opens for business on 15 September after being given the go-ahead from the DOJ, subsequent to divesting internet MCI.
  • 1998 – WorldCom acquires CompuServe Network Services from H&R Block and ANS Communications from AOL. Both become part of UUNET in 1999.
  • 1999 – On 5 October, MCI Worldcom announces its intentions to buy Sprint for $129 billion.
  • 2000 – The European Commission and DOJ denied the MCI WorldCom / Sprint merger on Anti-Trust Grounds.
  • 2000 – The UUNET brand is folded into WorldCom's product line and disappears
  • 2003 – The UUNET brand re-emerges as WorldCom's wholesale-only brand
  • 2004 – WorldCom renames itself to MCI, still using the UUNET brand for wholesale business.
  • 2005 – MCI again drops the UUNET brand for wholesale business. The name is no longer in use.
  • 2006 – Verizon acquires MCI, including its UUNET subsidiary, now known as Verizon Business. AS701 remains the backbone of Verizon Business although its origin dates back to 1990 when it was under the UUNET flag.

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