BookLink is a United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 based web browser

Web browser

A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...

 company founded by David Wetherell in February 1994 as a subsidiary of CMG Information Services. In September 1994, Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

, wanting BookLink's browser technology for Windows 95

Windows 95

Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...

 and the Microsoft Network, offered Wetherell a one-time, flat fee of US$2 million for the source code. Wetherell thought that the figure was too low. BookLink's browser was acquired by AOL

AOL

AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...

 in November 1994 for 710,000 shares of AOL's common stock, valued at the time at US$30 million.