SAS Institute, data warehousing and decision support software vendor, has embarked on a campaign to give it a more high profile image within the market ahead of an initial public offering (IPO) on Nasdaq expected in about 12 to 18 months.
This was announced today at the 18th SAS European Users Group (SeUGI) in Dublin.
SAS, a billion dollar company as of last year, is the largest private software company in the world and has until recently been hesitant to throw itself at the mercy of the world's bourses.
Phil Winters, VP of marketing for the EMEA region, says the company decided to list in an effort to raise brand awareness within the market.
SAS has posted double-digit revenues for the past 23 consecutive years and Winters is quick to point out that the listing is not an attempt to raise capital.
"As Jim [Goodnight, SAS Institute president and CEO] said, the main reasons companies go public is because they need the money. 'And we just plain don't need the money'."
Goodnight had previously said an IPO would be beneficial to the company in terms of staff retention and incentive. He added that the extra cash would not hurt if any acquisitions were on the cards.
The company will re-brand itself in the period leading up to the IPO. The re-branding exercise includes a change of logo.
SAS also used the 18th SeUGI conference in Dublin as a vehicle to promote the launch of e-Value, a new addition to its e-Intelligence suite.
The software will act as an online facilitator for buyers and suppliers. e-Value contains a data warehouse infrastructure that includes direct access to business-to-business Internet transaction data.
The software is expected to be available in the fourth quarter of this year.
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