Support.com, Inc. is a

technical support Technical support, commonly shortened as tech support, is a customer service provided to customers to resolve issues, commonly with consumer electronics. This is commonly provided via call centers, online chat and email. Many companies provid ...

company for businesses and consumers. It was headquartered in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...

with an administrative office in

Sunnyvale, California Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real (California), El Camino Real and U.S. Route 101 in California, Highway 1 ...

. The company's services are performed on

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macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

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, 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 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, experienc ...

, which provides managed IT services for small businesses.

History

In September 1997, Mark Pincus, 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 the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area of Northern California, approximately south of San Francisco and northwest of San Jose, California, San Jose. The city's population was 84,292 accor ...

SoftBank is a Japanese multinational Investment company, investment holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, that focuses on investment management. The group primarily invests in companies operating in technology that offer goods and services ...

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 language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

. The company's focus moved to self-healing software, the idea that Windows applications could automatically fix any problems they encountered. 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. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

, was appointed president and CEO, with Pincus moving to chairman. 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 on July 19, 2000, backed by Credit Suisse First Boston. 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. 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. In April 2006, Basu stepped down, and Josh Pickus was named CEO, coming from

CA Technologies CA Technologies, Inc., formerly Computer Associates International, Inc., and CA, Inc., was an American multinational corporation, multinational enterprise software developer and publisher that existed from 1976 to 2018. CA grew to rank as one o ...

. On April 1, 2014, Pickus resigned from his position as president and CEO. In May 2014, Elizabeth Cholawsky, formerly of Citrix Systems, 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. On September 15, 2021, cryptocurrency mining and power generation company Greenridge Generation Holdings acquired Support.com in a

reverse takeover A reverse takeover (RTO), reverse merger, or reverse IPO is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. Sometimes, conversely, the public compa ...

. In 2023, SuperAntiSpyware was sold to RealDefense SE.

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 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. ts TechSolutions consumer tech support was announced in October 2019.

Customers and partnerships

The company's customers have included Zendesk, Upclick, SiOnyx,

Cox Communications Cox Communications, Inc. (also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation, Dimension Cable Services and Times-Mirror Cable), is an American digital cable television provider, telecommunications and home automation services comp ...

and

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

. The company has entered into partnerships with companies including InstallerNet, Office Depot, AOL, Staples,

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

, OnForce, and Absolute Software Corporation. The company also launched a partnership with Target to provide tech support for Target's MyTGTtech solution.

Litigation

On February 27, 2012, a

class action lawsuit A class action A class action is a form of lawsuit. Class Action may also refer to: * ''Class Action'' (film), 1991, starring Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio * Class Action (band), a garage house band * "Class Action" (''Teenage R ...

was filed against Support.com and AOL, 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 Office Depot alleging their free PC Health Check Program used by Office Depot purposely misidentified

malware Malware (a portmanteau of ''malicious software'')Tahir, R. (2018)A study on malware and malware detection techniques . ''International Journal of Education and Management Engineering'', ''8''(2), 20. is any software intentionally designed to caus ...

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.

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