PC Connection history

At its official 1983 launch, the Internet had been a modest experimental network of networks owned by the United States government.

Usenet is the first; though mostly for geeks its discussion groups are quite popular and it gets ported to run over the Internet by 1986.

At the instigation of computer pioneers, Senator Al Gore begins working in 1987 on what will become his High Performance Computing and Communication Act.

At the world’s biggest physics laboratory, CERN in Switzerland, English programmer and physicist Tim Berners-Lee submits two proposals for what will become the Web, starting in March of 1989.

DEC and Xerox will also begin commercializing their own proprietary networks, DECNET and XNS. At it’s peak around 1990, IBM’s SNA will quietly carry most of the world's networking traffic.

When it is funded in 1991, the Act creates the National Information Infrastructure, which promotes and funds over $600 million worth of various networking initiatives.

By 1992 the Internet will have emerged as the new global standard, linking a million computers.

Founded in 1993 as a private company, ComTeq had been successfully serving the expansive and growing needs of computer equipment and services to key government agencies.

In 1994, PCC had distributed 16.9 million catalogs and entered 803,000 orders--each having an average price of $282.

The first businesses to earn substantial profits on the Web are pornography and gambling sites, by 1995.

In 1996, those numbers rose to 18.6 million catalogs distributed, and 910,000 orders averaging $453.

PCC was soon the largest private employer in New Hampshire, but relinquished that distinction in November 1997 when it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering of its common stock.

Then, in December of that year, PCC decided to move to Merrimack, New Hampshire 'in order to be closer to a larger pool of skilled workers,' that were needed to continue the company's rapid growth, according to Gallup's interview with Eileen Kennedy in the July 31, 1998 issue of The Telegraph.

She worked as a field archaeologist for the Public Archaeology Survey Team, 'a for-profit business that surveyed lands to ensure their compliance with laws protecting cultural resources,' according to Ilan Mochari's article in the October 1, 1999 issue of Inc. magazine.

On January 3, 2000, PCC formed and became a holding company--named PC Connection, Inc.--consisting of PC Connection Sales Corp., Merrimack Services Corp., and ComTeq Federal, Inc.

By 2002, over 34 million subscribers are using it on their phones for web access, e-mail, mobile payments, streaming video, and many other features that the rest of the world won't see for nearly another decade.

In 2004, Google is the first major Web company to float a publicly traded stock since the go-go days of the dot-com boom.