Cobalt Networks was formed in 1996 by three former Apple employees. They released two product lines: the Qube and RaQ server appliances. They helped usher in the commercialization of the Internet with their innovative approach to ease of setup and configuration. At one point, there were tens of thousands of Cobalt server appliances connected to the Internet. Cobalt was acquired in 2002 by Sun Microsystems, and the name along with their product lines were shuttered the following year.