SAS Institute Inc. (dba SAS ) is an American multinational developer of analytics and artificial intelligence software based in Cary, North Carolina. SAS develops and markets a suite of analytics software (also called SAS), which helps access, manage, analyze and report on data to aid in decision-making. SAS Institute started as a project at North Carolina State University to create a statistical analysis system. SAS originally stood for "Statistical Analysis System", though it is no longer considered an acronym. It was originally used primarily by agricultural departments at universities in the late 1960s. It became an independent, private business led by current CEO James Goodnight and three other project leaders from the university in 1976. SAS is one of the largest privately held software providers in the world, and the company's software is used by most of the Fortune 500 companies. The company's revenue grew from $10 million in 1980 to $3.2 billion in 2022. Historically, it has spent a notably higher proportion of its annual revenue on research and development than most other software companies.
History
1966–1979: Founding and early history The Statistical Analysis System (SAS) began as a project at North Carolina State University's agricultural department. It was originally led by Anthony James Barr in 1966, then joined by NCSU graduate student James Goodnight in 1967 and John Sall in 1973. In the early 1970s, the software was primarily leased to other agricultural departments in order to analyze the effect soil, weather and seed varieties had on crop yields. The project was funded by the National Institutes of Health and later by a coalition of university statistics programs called the University Statisticians of the Southern Experiment Stations. By 1976, the software had 100 customers and that year, 300 people attended the first SAS user conference in Kissimmee, Florida. Goodnight, Barr, Sall and another early participant, Jane Helwig, founded SAS Institute Inc. as a private company on July 1, 1976, in offices across the street from the university. Barr and Helwig later sold their interest in the company. During its first year of operation, SAS adopted a tradition of polling users for suggestions to improve the software through the SASware Ballot. Many of the company's employee perks, such as fresh fruit, reasonable work hours and free M&M's every Wednesday became part of its practices that first year. In the late 1970s, the company established its first marketing department.
1980–2018 SAS started building its current headquarters in a forested area of Cary, North Carolina in 1980. Later that year, it began providing on-site daycare in order to keep an employee who had planned to leave her job to care for her child at home. By 1984, SAS had expanded the benefits programs it offered to employees and their families, and begun building a fitness center, medical center, on-site cafe and other facilities. SAS became known as a good place to work and was frequently recognized by national magazines like BusinessWeek, Working Mother and Fortune for its work environment. The company began its relationship with Microsoft and development for Windows operating systems in 1989. Shortly afterwards it established partnerships with database companies like Oracle, Sybase and Informix. During the 1980s, SAS was one of Inc. Magazine's fastest growing companies in America from 1979 and 1985. It grew more than ten percent per year from $10 million in revenues in 1980 to $1.1 billion by 2000. In 2007, SAS revenue was $2.15 billion, and in 2013 its revenue was $3.02 billion. By the late 1990s, SAS was the largest privately held software company. The Associated Press reported that analysts attributed the growth to aggressive research and development (R&D) spending. It had the highest ratio of its revenues spent on R&D in the industry for eight years, setting a record of 34 percent of its revenues in 1993, as it was working on a new menu-based interface. In 1998, a larger proportion of its revenue was spent on R&D than at most other software companies; in 1997, this figure was more than double the industry average. SAS created an education division in 1997 to create software for schools, including the newly formed Cary Academy. In 2003 the Bank of America Foundation purchased and donated licenses for the software to 400 schools in North Carolina. SAS funded its first advertising program in 2000 with a $30 million television and radio campaign. The company considered making 25 percent of its ownership stake available on the stock market and providing employees with stock-options during the dot-com bubble before the following downturn, but ultimately chose not to. SAS was one of the few technology companies that did well during the downturn and hired aggressively to take advantage of available staff. In 2009, SAS filed a lawsuit against World Programming Ltd., alleging World Programming System—a software product designed to use the features of the SAS language—violated their copyright as it was reverse engineered from the functionality of SAS Learning Edition. The European Court of Justice ruled that functionality and language elements were not protected and the case was discussed in Oracle v. Google SAS introduced its first reseller program intended to grow sales with small to medium-sized businesses in 2006. Leading up to 2007, SAS provided funding and curriculum assistance to help start the Master of Science in Analytics program at nearby North Carolina State University. The company's cloud-based products grew in revenues by 35 percent in 2014 and the construction of Building Q was completed late that year to house its corresponding operations. In March 2014, SAS launched its SAS Analytics U initiative to provide free foundational technologies and support to teachers and students.
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