Bomis ( to rhyme with "promise") was a dot-com company best known for supporting the creations of free-content online-encyclopedia projects Nupedia and Wikipedia. It was founded in 1996 by Jimmy Wales, and Michael Davis. Davis became acquainted with Wales after hiring him at Chicago Options Associates in 1994, and Wales became friends with Shell through mailing lists discussing philosophy. The primary business of Bomis was the sale of advertising on the Bomis.com search portal.