Netscape Dead
Netscape
KindCompany
Founded1994
Defunct2003
StatusDead
FoundersClark & Andreessen
FieldSoftware
Sourcewww.mozilla.org ↗
The browser that opened the web to the public — Navigator, JavaScript, SSL. AOL bought the burning wreck in 1999; its code outlived it as Mozilla.
1960198020002020
Notable people Brendan Eich
Clark and Andreessen (Mosaic's authors) founded Mosaic Communications in April 1994, renamed Netscape after UIUC objected. Navigator owned ~80% of browser share by 1996; the August 1995 IPO opened the dot-com era.
Microsoft bundled IE free and bled Netscape out. The company open-sourced its code as Mozilla in 1998 — one of history's most consequential dumps — and AOL bought it for $4.2 billion in 1999. The code outlived the company: Firefox is its heir.