The company was founded as Silicon Valley Internet Partners (SVIP) by Eric Greenberg, Duc Haba, Dwayne Nesmith, and Robbie Vann-Adibé. It received venture capital investment from
Mohr Davidow Ventures,
Trident Capital, and
Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. The company combined business strategy, design, and technology services. In mid-1996,
Robert Gett was appointed
CEO, and corporate headquarters were moved to
Boston,
Massachusetts. Eric Greenberg left the company in 1997. The company was renamed Viant in 1998, and its California offices moved to the
South of Market area in San Francisco. Viant went public in June 1999. By the end of that year, its market capitalization exceeded $2 billion. Following the
dot-com bust, the company conducted multiple rounds of
layoffs between 2000 and 2002. In September 2002, the firm was acquired by
Divine for $96 million. == See also ==