SAS CEO Jim Goodnight’s announced plans to go public in 2025 appear uncertain. Newly appointed COO Gavin Day is throwing himself into the preparations but has no target date.
Day made this known in response to questions from Techzine. SAS continues to prepare for the transition to the market. However, market conditions are also difficult. “There not a target for me,” said Day. So, for now, there does not appear to be a new target year. In 2023, Goodnight told Techzine that 2025 was still the target date for the IPO.
Essentially, SAS is in no rush to go public. The company, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year, says it has a healthy financial position, so capital is not immediately necessary.
Operating as a listed company
SAS is working hard on the preparations despite the lack of a deadline. “We call it operating as a publicly traded company,” says Day. “The predictability of revenue, hitting our quarterly numbers, having board updates is a big part of it.”
An essential element is modernizing its systems. SAS already switched to a global standard financial platform last year. The company also recently launched a completely new system for lead-to-cash processes, which can be used to manage pricing, order processing, and revenue recognition.
Market conditions
The current economic situation plays a crucial role in SAS’s decision-making. Tech stocks have been very volatile in recent months, partly due to tensions surrounding US import tariffs. “We have to look at the economic turmoil that we’re in right now. The markets are very volatile,” Day explains. “Every year, the bankers say this is the year that the IPO market is open, and every year we see the IPO market not really open.”
Day wants to see other software companies of significant size go public successfully first. “If you’re a $100, $200 or $300 million company going public, the risk there is very different than a $3 billion global company. So I’d like to see that.”
The COO emphasizes that the most important goal right now is to be prepared when CEO Jim Goodnight ultimately decides the time is right. Until then, SAS will continue to focus on publicly traded standards each quarter so that the transition can proceed smoothly once market conditions are more favorable.