Central amongst the host of issues currently crowding the global forum is an escalating conflict in the Middle East. Aside from Turkey’s military incursion in Syria over the past week, heightened tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran continue to cast uncertainty over the region.

In 1999, 547 companies rushed towards public markets looking to capitalize on the zenith of the dotcom era. The vast majority of those companies were comprised of young tech darlings and, all told, companies that went public in 1999 took in a record haul of $108 billion.