Kronos Incorporated was an American multinational

workforce management Workforce management (WFM) is an institutional process that maximizes performance levels and competency for an organization. The process includes all the activities needed to maintain a productive workforce, such as field service management, human ...

and

human capital management Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the effective and efficient management of people in a company or organization such that they help their business gain a competitive advantage. It is designed to maximize em ...

cloud provider headquartered in

Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, United States. Alongside Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, it is one of two traditional county seat, seats of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in ...

, United States, which employed more than 6,000 people worldwide. In February 2020, the company announced a

merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

with Ultimate Software. The merger was officially completed on April 1, 2020, with then-CEO of Kronos Aron Ain leading the newly formed Ultimate Kronos Group as its first CEO.

History

Kronos was founded in 1977 by

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT) and Simon Business School alumnus Mark S. Ain. Under Mark Ain's leadership, Kronos sustained one of the longest records of growth and profitability as a public company in software industry history. In 1979, Kronos delivered the world's first

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor (computing), processor for which the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit (IC), or a small number of ICs. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, a ...

-based

time clock A time clock, sometimes known as a clock card machine, punch clock, or time recorder, is a device that records start and end times for hourly employees (or those on flexi-time) at a place of business. In mechanical time clocks, this was accompl ...

and, in 1985, delivered its first PC-based time and attendance product. In 1992, Kronos became a publicly-traded company on

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

. Aron Ain succeeded his brother Mark Ain as chief executive officer in 2005. In March 2007, Kronos went private again, bought out for US$1.74 billion by the lead investor

Hellman & Friedman Hellman & Friedman LLC (H&F) is an American private equity firm, founded in 1984 by Warren Hellman and Tully Friedman, that makes investments primarily through leveraged buyouts as well as growth capital investments. H&F has focused its efforts ...

and the secondary investor JMI Equity. In 2012, the

Third Circuit Court of Appeals The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (in case citations, 3d Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts for the following districts: * District of Delaware * District of New Jersey * Eas ...

enforced a subpoena seeking production of documents by Kronos, Inc., in an administrative charge before the

EEOC The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...

alleging disability discrimination. The charge was brought by an individual job applicant against Kroger Food Co., who did not hire the job applicant and used a Kronos assessment as part of its hiring process. Kronos, which was not a party to the litigation, objected to the EEOC's subpoena on the basis that the information requested was irrelevant, and production would require Kronos to disclose protected trade secret information. In 2014, private equity firms Blackstone and

GIC GIC may refer to: Education * Ghana Insurance College, in Accra, Ghana * Government Intermediate College, a type of school in India * Grait International College in Nigeria * Gyosei International College in the U.K., defunct Finance * General ...

invested in Kronos alongside

and JMI Equity. In the transaction, Kronos was valued at $4.5 billion. This was the first year that the company achieved $1 billion in annual revenue. In 2017, Kronos moved its corporate headquarters from the nearby town of

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...

to the Cross Point Towers in

, consolidating multiple offices under one roof. In February 2020, the company announced a merger with Ultimate Software to be led by Aron Ain. In April 2020, as a response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Kronos introduced an automated report-generating tool to aid

contact tracing In public health, contact tracing is the process of identifying people who may have been exposed to an infected person ("contacts") and subsequent collection of further data to assess transmission. By tracing the contacts of infected individua ...

. The tool analyzes work and attendance records of employees who test positive (or presumed positive) for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

to generate a report of potentially affected co-workers. On December 13, 2021, Kronos announced that, on December 11, it was discovered that Kronos had been subject to a ransomware attack which disabled the functionality of the Kronos Private Cloud software for "up to several weeks". This breach forced many Kronos customers including municipalities, universities, and private employers to resort to alternative methods, including issuance of paper checks, to properly pay their employees.

Acquisitions

Kronos has conducted a number of acquisitions, with some of the most notable including: * Principal Decision Systems International (PDSI) * The Workforce Solutions software division of SimplexGrinnell * Stromberg * 3i Systems * SaaS''hr''.com * Time Link International Corporation (TimeLink) * Empower Software Solutions * Financial Management Solutions, Inc. (FMSI) * Digital Instinct Pty. Limited * OptiLink

References

External links

* {{authority control Business software companies Software companies based in Massachusetts Companies based in Lowell, Massachusetts Software companies established in 1977 Human resource management software Cloud computing providers Multinational companies headquartered in the United States Privately held companies based in Massachusetts 1977 establishments in Massachusetts American companies established in 1977 1992 initial public offerings 2007 mergers and acquisitions 2020 mergers and acquisitions Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Private equity portfolio companies Defunct software companies of the United States