Storm was an MBO (worth US$250m) supported by George Soros...

Storm was an MBO (worth US$250m) supported by George Soros Equity Partners and Merril Lynch. I think Mark Stewart put the MBO together in late 1999. The core business plan was the deployment of the first 100% 'optically switched' network in Europe. This was designed for ISP's and the like who needed fibre optic capacity between cities in Europe. Nothing new about this, but the kicker was that unlike say Telstra, or BT or Tele Italia who would give it to you for a minimum of 12 months, with Storm you could have it for as short a time as a couple of hours. It was a true throttle up/down according to demand. Obviously the technology (from Sycamore Networks) was cutting edge.

Problem: when alot of the ISP's went out of business during the IT/ISP downturn in Europe towards the end of 2001, its customer base dried up, and therefore could not operate as a stand alone. Due to the amount of technology present in the network however, it was bought very quickly.

Apparently Mark Stewart left Storm in May 2001. Storm was sold in April 2002.