SAS Software Co. May Go Public

The world's largest privately held software company may offer stock to the public for the first time in the next 12 to 18 months, the head of SAS Institute says.

SAS co-founder and chief executive Jim Goodnight said Monday at a customer conference in Indianapolis that he has made a commitment to employees to take the company public and has been in talks with investment banker Goldman Sachs & Co. for four years.

The 23-year-old company makes software tools to analyze data, and that market has gotten hotter with the rise in popularity of Internet businesses, which collect mountains of data from Web transactions.

Goodnight has said SAS doesn't need the money but said an initial public offering would bring attention and help keep employees happy.

"We really are being cherry-picked by the dot-coms," Goodnight told an audience of about 100 executives, industry analysts and representatives from software trade publications.

SAS employs 3,500 workers at its Cary campus and generated $1 billion in revenue last year.

A stock offering would enable SAS to compete with recruiters calling its employees with stock options to offer. It's employee turnover rate of 4 percent is considered well below the software industry average.