Support.com, Inc. is a

technical support Technical support (abbreviated as tech support) is a call centre type customer service provided by companies to advise and assist registered users with issues concerning their technical products. Traditionally done on the phone, technical suppor ...

company for businesses and consumers. It is headquartered in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington (Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina ...

with administrative office in

Sunnyvale, California Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwest Santa Clara County in the U.S. state of California. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the nort ...

. The company's services are performed on

Windows Windows is a group of several Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, W ...

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lap ...

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

, and Android, supporting connected and smart devices. These services are performed by the company's remote, full-time workforce based mainly in the U.S. Support.com owns SUPERAntiSpyware, headquartered in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...

, which offers anti-

malware Malware (a portmanteau for ''malicious software'') is any software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain unauthorized access to information or systems, dep ...

software. The company also owns RightHand IT, headquartered in

Louisville, Colorado The City of Louisville () is a home rule municipality located in southeastern Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 21,226 at the 2020 United States Census. Louisville began as a mining community in 1877, experienced a ...

, which provides managed IT services for small businesses.

History

Formation, IPO, and name changes

In September 1997,

Mark Pincus Mark Jonathan Pincus (born February 13, 1966) is an American Internet entrepreneur known as the founder of Zynga, a mobile social gaming company. Pincus also founded the startups Freeloader, Inc., Tribe Networks, and Support.com. Pincus served as ...

, Scott Dale, and Cadir Lee launched Replicase Inc., a software company in

Redwood City, California Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California's Bay Area, approximately south of San Francisco, and northwest of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people to being a p ...

SoftBank is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the ...

invested $2.5 million in the company. In October 1998, Replicase was renamed Tioga Systems, Inc., coinciding with the relocation of the corporate headquarters to

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was esta ...

. The company's focus moved to self-healing software, the idea that Windows applications could automatically fix any problems they encountered. In December 1999, the company changed its corporate name to Support.com, then headquartered in Redwood City. Its focus shifted to providing support software for enterprise companies. The company went public with an

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

on July 19, 2000, backed by

Credit Suisse First Boston Credit Suisse First Boston (also known as CSFB and CS First Boston) is the investment banking affiliate of Credit Suisse headquartered in New York. The company was created by the merger of First Boston Corporation and Credit Suisse Group in 1988 ...

. On March 28, 2002, Support.com was renamed SupportSoft, Inc. On June 23, 2009, the enterprise technology of SupportSoft was acquired by Consona Corporation, and the company name was changed back to Support.com. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Support.com announced a free month of tech support to support consumers working or learning from home. In March 2020, the company hired over 100 additional remote customer support agents to keep up with a higher demand for their services, bringing their total number of employees to 1,200, and stated that it planned on hiring an "unlimited number of remote support agent roles to support demand for virtual call centers and remote tech support."

Executive history

In August 1999, Radha Basu, coming from

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

, was appointed president and CEO, with Pincus moving to chairman. With the appointment, Basu became one of the few female Indian CEOs in the US. Pincus remained with the company until 2003, when he left to start Tribe Networks. In April 2006, Basu stepped down, and Josh Pickus was named CEO, coming from

CA Technologies CA Technologies, formerly known as CA, Inc. and Computer Associates International, Inc., is an American multinational corporation headquartered in New York City. It is primarily known for its business-to-business (B2B) software with a product po ...

. He aimed to bring the business back to profitability by focusing on direct customer support, as opposed to primarily licensing software to large service providers. On April 1, 2014, Pickus resigned from his position as president and CEO. In May 2014, Elizabeth Cholawsky, formerly of

Citrix Systems Citrix Systems, Inc. is an American multinational cloud computing and virtualization technology company that provides server, application and desktop virtualization, networking, software as a service (SaaS), and cloud computing technologies. ...

, was announced as Support.com's new CEO. In October 2016, Richard Bloom was appointed interim president and CEO, with the interim tag later being removed. On August 10, 2020, Support.com announced that Lance Rosenzweig would succeed Bloom as president and CEO.

Acquisition

Products and services

* TechSolutions - direct-to-consumer tech support for connected devices with help from live tech support agents via phone, chat, or virtual house calls; includes Support.com Guided Paths, free self-support tools * Virtual call center services and remote IT Help desk support - outsourced technical support services including remote call center operations and software platform to enable remote call center teams * Nexus - cloud-based software for support interaction optimization * Small business tech support services - RightHand IT and remote tech support for small business * SUPERAntiSpyware - anti-malware software In October 2013, Support.com announced the latest version of its Nexus Service Delivery Platform, which included expanded service for mobile devices and real-time analytics. In July 2014, Support.com released SUPERAntiSpyware 6.0, its anti-malware software. Its TechSolutions consumer tech support was announced in October 2019.

Acquisitions, customers, and partnerships

Support.com acquired Core Networks in 2004; YourTechOnline in 2008; and Sammsoft in 2009. In 2011, the company acquired SUPERAntiSpyware. In 2012, the company acquired RightHand IT. The company's customers have included

Zendesk Zendesk is an American company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides software-as-a-service products related to customer support, sales, and other customer communications. The company was founded in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2007. ...

, Upclick, SiOnyx, Cox Communications and Comcast. The company has entered into partnerships with companies including InstallerNet,

Office Depot The ODP Corporation is an American office supply holding company headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. The company has combined annual sales of approximately $11 billion, and employs about 38,000 associates with businesses in the United States. ...

AOL AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...

, Staples,

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

, OnForce, and

Absolute Software Corporation Absolute Software Corporation is an American-Canadian company that provides products and services in the fields of endpoint security and zero trust security. The company is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Regional offices i ...

. The company also launched a partnership with

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, ...

to provide tech support for Target's MyTGTtech solution.

Litigations

On February 27, 2012, a

class action lawsuit A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class action ...

was filed against Support.com and

, claiming that their Computer Checkup software would offer to perform a free scan, purposely find problems that did not actually exist and then offer to sell software to remedy those problems. Both AOL and Support.com settled the claim on May 30, 2013, by offering a refund to consumers up to a total amount of $8.5 million. In December 2016, a complaint was filed against Support.com and

alleging their free PC Health Check Program used by Office Depot purposely misidentified

symptoms, and that consumers were then encouraged to purchase repair services. In March 2019, Office Depot agreed to pay $25 million and Support.com agreed to pay $10 million to settle the complaint. Support.com suspended use of the PC Health Check Program in 2016.

Merger

On September 15, 2021, Greenidge Generation Holdings acquired Support.com and delisted its stock from the Nasdaq. Greenidge is a Bitcoin mining company.

References

External links

* {{Finance links , name = Support.com Inc. , symbol = SPRT , sec_cik = 1104855 , hoovers = Supportcom_Inc.e32e934a0280995a American companies established in 1997 Companies based in Sunnyvale, California Help desk software Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Software companies based in California Multinational companies Software companies established in 1997 Software companies of the United States 2000 initial public offerings