Broadcom In Talks To Buy Big Data Analytics Giant SAS Institute: Report

Hardware and software infrastructure vendor Broadcom is in talks to acquire privately held business analytics and data management software giant SAS Institute in a deal potentially valued at $15 billion to $20 billion, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

A deal could be reached in the next few weeks, according to the report, but is by no means assured.

An acquisition of SAS would the latest of several major acquisitions by Broadcom, a San Jose, Calif.-based semiconductor manufacturer that has moved in recent years to become a supplier of IT hardware and software infrastructure technology.

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Broadcom acquired infrastructure software vendor CA Technologies in November 2018 for $18.9 billion and bought cybersecurity software developer Symantec Enterprise in November 2019 for $10.7 billion. Broadcom also bought network systems manufacturer Brocade Communications Systems in 2017 for $5.5 billion.

SAS, based in Cary, N.C., in the Research Triangle Park/Raleigh-Durham area, is one of the IT industries’ biggest developers of business analytics, AI and data management software.

SAS (SAS stands for Statistical Analysis System) grew out a data analysis software project at North Carolina State University where the company’s founders, including current CEO James Goodnight, were professors and students.

The company was founded in 1976 and has expanded into a broad product line of data analytics and data management offerings from its flagship SAS Viya visual analytics software, to data integration and governance tools, to Internet of Things analytics software, and business analytics applications for specific industries and tasks such as fraud detection and risk assessment in financial services.

The company’s founders have retained ownership of privately held SAS – Goodnight has a two-thirds stake in the company while co-founder and executive vice president John Sall owns one-third, according to a company fact page.

SAS doesn’t provide detailed financial data about its operations, although the company did issue an annual report earlier this year that disclosed that its revenue in 2020 was $3 billion.

SAS currently has 12,545 employees, according to the company’s website, with about 5,200 at its Cary headquarters.

A SAS spokesperson declined to comment on the WSJ report while Broadcom did not respond to a request for comment.