10 IPOs that flopped
Genuity started life as BBN, which helped design and implement the Arpanet in 1969, considered the precursor to the Internet. In its IPO filing, Genuity even took credit for delivering the world's first email (business historians are still trying to figure out who sent the first singing telegram -- and why.)
To be fair, Genuity's IPO flop was not of its own making. The company was owned by Bell Atlantic, which had been working on a merger with GTE. But due to antitrust concerns, Bell could not complete the deal until it spun off Genuity. Naturally, this put pressure on Bell Atlantic to unload the unit. Thus, Genuity was hurriedly brought to market at a price of $11 a share. The market yawned, and the share price tumbled nearly 20% within days of the launch. Bell Atlantic and GTE did finally get hitched, christening the new company Verizon. On it's own, Genuity didn't have the resources to fund upgrades to its network. The company went bankrupt in Nov. 2002. It was later revived by Level 3, which is said to be better than Level 2 by at least one level.