Saved By The Bubble: SAS Drops Plans To Go PublicSaved By The Bubble: SAS Drops Plans To Go Public

SAS Institute Inc.'s plans to go public are dead for now. And no one seems the least bit unhappy about it.

Three years ago, when IT stocks hit new heights, the world's largest privately held software company flirted with the idea of going public. SAS faced the problem of hiring good people--and retaining those it had--with so many startups offering lucrative stock options. But SAS's initial public offering was just a twinkle in Wall Street's eye when the dot-com bubble burst, and it never got off the ground.

You won't hear any griping, though. "Given that we're a private company, we only have to worry about the long term," president and CEO James Goodnight says. He notes that his company can do things publicly held companies can't because of Wall Street's insatiable demands for quarterly earnings growth.

Last year, for example, SAS maintained research and development spending at 25% of sales and increased its employee roster more than 8%, particularly in R&D, sales, and service and support operations. Goodnight shrugs off the cost in short-term profits. "While other [software vendors] were scaling back, SAS used the opportunity to go out and hire. There are a lot of good people on the street looking for jobs," he says.

SAS employees, who missed out on stock options when the IPO didn't happen, are no less happy. In a recent internal survey, 87% of SAS workers said they don't want to go public. That's not surprising given that SAS makes nearly every annual "best-place-to-work" list, with its 35-hour workweek, on-site child-care and health-care centers, a 77,000-square-foot recreation and fitness facility, and free candy and soda in every office building kitchen. Such perks are rare among profit-driven public companies--and they're a welcome morale booster in times of woe.

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