Sterling Software was an American

software company A software company is a company whose primary products are various forms of software, software technology, distribution, and software product development. They make up the software industry. Types There are a number of different types of soft ...

founded in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

in 1981 by Sterling Williams and brothers Sam and Charles Wyly. The company was acquired by Computer Associates International in 2000 in a stock-for-stock transaction worth $3.3 billion. Computer Associates sold Sterling Software's Federal Systems Group to Northrop Grumman in 2000. It was known for its aggressive acquisitions, most notably the hostile take-over of

Informatics General Corporation Informatics General Corporation, earlier Informatics, Inc., was an American computer software company in existence from 1962 through 1985 and based in Los Angeles, California. It made a variety of software products, and was especially known for it ...

in 1985. Informatics was one of the first established software and services companies. It developed the MARK-IV

Fourth-generation programming language A fourth-generation programming language (4GL) is any computer programming language that belongs to a class of languages envisioned as an advancement upon third-generation programming languages (3GL). Each of the programming language generations a ...

in the 1960s. MARK-IV became the first software package exceeding $1 million in revenue, after IBM was forced in 1969 to unbundle software from their hardware. Helped by financing and counseled by Werner Frank, one of Informatics' founders who had left this company a year before, Sterling Software started the hostile take over by offering to shareholders an interesting price per share and increasing it slowly until the Informatics board was no longer able to reject it. Overnight, Sterling Software became a $200 million in revenue company up from $20 million. After only 2 years, they started again acquiring new companies. Acquired Systems Center, Inc. of

Reston, Virginia Reston is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia and a principal city of the Washington metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, Reston's population was 63,226. Founded in 1964, Reston was influenced by the Garden City move ...

in 1993 in a stock-for stock transaction worth $185 million, Sterling Software's 20th acquisition. In the process of this acquisition, Sterling Software was completely restructured along lines of business, as opposed to the previous practice of absorbing acquired companies as essentially equivalent divisions. Acquired

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

-based KnowledgeWare in a stock-for-stock transaction worth $74 million in 1994, in the process eliminating about 250 jobs in the combined companies. KnowledgeWare's founder

Fran Tarkenton Francis Asbury Tarkenton (born February 3, 1940) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons, primarily with the Minnesota Vikings. He played college football at ...

joined the Sterling Software board of directors as part of the deal. Acquired

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globa ...

's Dallas-based software division (known as TI Software) for $165 million cash in 1997, about 66% of its previous year's revenue. The acquisition included the rights to CA Gen. Acquired

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

-based Cayenne Software for $11.4 million in cash in 1998, Sterling Software's 30th acquisition. Acquired

Fremont, California Fremont is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area, Fremont has a population of 230,504 as of 2020, making it the fourth List of cities and towns in the San Fra ...

-based

Interlink Computer Sciences Interlink Computer Sciences, of Fremont, California, was a developer of hardware and software that allowed IBM mainframe computers running the MVS operating system to be connected to non-IBM networks. Interlink was founded in 1983 by Lambert O ...

in 1999 for $64 million in cash, merging Interlink into Sterling's existing Network Management Division.

References

External links

Oral history interview with Sam Wyly

Charles Babbage Institute The IT History Society (ITHS) is an organization that supports the history and scholarship of information technology by encouraging, fostering, and facilitating archival and historical research. Formerly known as the Charles Babbage Foundation, ...

, University of Minnesota. Interview by David Allison, 6 December 2002, focuses on ongoing developments at University Computer Corporation, the eventual sale of this firm to

Computer Associates 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 ...

, Wyly's formation of Sterling Software, its acquisition of

Informatics Informatics is the study of computational systems, especially those for data storage and retrieval. According to ACM ''Europe and'' '' Informatics Europe'', informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which t ...

, the sale of Sterling, and his ideas on the future of information technology. * {{webarchive , date=2013-01-19 , url=https://archive.today/20130119205647/http://news.com.com/Going+in+for+the+CA+kill/2009-1082_3-269448.html , title=Going in for the CA kill - interview with Sam Wyly.
Biography of Sam Wyly
Defunct software companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Texas Software companies established in 1980 Software companies disestablished in 2000 CA Technologies

See also

References

External links