SAS Institute turns 50 next year, and for more than half its lifetime, the media (and employees) have asked whether the giant analytics provider will ever go public.
“Personally, I don’t want the hassle of running a public company,” Jim Goodnight, SAS cofounder and CEO, told The N&O in 1995. “It would ruin my life.”
Goodnight’s ongoing decision to keep SAS private has shaped the company that — more than any other — has shaped the town of Cary. A two-thirds owner, Goodnight made his business into a model for work-life-balance, earning SAS accolades for its 35-hour work weeks, on-site child care, free M&Ms, and a resident pianist playing in the cafeteria…