5 years ago... Drugstore.com debuts on the Nasdaq

29.07.99: Online pharmacy Drugstore.com marks its second day as a public concern.

The day before, the company had a spectacular IPO in which shares opened at $65 and tripled in price during early trading - typical of floats for Internet companies at the time.

Trading was heavy, as 8.9 million shares changed hands, but ultimately shares ended the day lower at $50.25.

Drugstore.com had launched in February, 1999, and, as for its financials, saw a loss of $30.4m on sales of $4.2m in the first half of the year.

29.07.04: The good news is: Drugstore.com is still around. The same cannot be said for many of its fellow online businesses.

The bad news, for early investors in the company, is that its share price is now in the $2 range.

Shares hit lows of under $1 in the autumn of 2001 and have since been treading water in the sub-$10 range.

Its financials have improved significantly from its early days. In the first quarter of 2004, it brought in revenue of $84.4m, though it's still unprofitable - it saw a net loss of $4.6m (before accounting charges).

Over the years, the company has expanded the range of products that it sells to include high-end beauty products, nutritional supplements and contact lenses. It's accomplished this for the most part through acquisition of sites specializing in each of these areas, including beauty.com.