New SAS chief operating officer talks about CEO succession and wait to go public
.jpg "An aerial view of SAS Institute headquarters in Cary. The firm has named a new chief operating officer.")
Having forecast that it would go public in 2024, then targeting 2025, the longtime Cary analytics software provider SAS now says it will make an initial public offering when both the company and the market are ready.
“Timing is something that we have the luxury of,” Gavin Day said during a virtual press conference Thursday, where he was introduced as SAS’ new chief operating officer. “We are a no-debt company. We do not need capital. We do not have to pay back investors. So we absolutely have the patience to wait.”
Day is SAS’ first standalone chief operating officer since 2021. He has been at the company 25 years, most recently as an executive vice president, and will assume COO duties from CEO and cofounder James Goodnight. As chief operating officer, Day said he’ll direct “all revenue-generating functions,” including enterprise sales, channel sales, consulting, finance organization and IPO readiness.
“I think it’s more about continuing the tradition, the legacy and the history that we have as a company,” he said. “Which is, frankly, solving the world’s and the customers’ hardest problems right for the last 50 years. Now, I think we’re going to have to go do that a lot faster, because the pace of change and the pace of innovation is rapid.”
Goodnight started SAS in 1976 with fellow North Carolina State University student John Sall and grew it into the world’s largest private software company. Today, SAS employs more than 4,000 people at its Triangle campus, ranking it among the top local employers. According to Forbes, Goodnight is the wealthiest person in North Carolina, with an estimated net worth of $9.9 billion, and Sall is third.
Addressing SAS succession and IPO
Day said the 82-year-old Goodnight remains active in the company’s operations.
“There is absolutely a succession plan that Dr. Goodnight has in place,” he said. “And he will be the one to communicate that when the time is appropriate. He is, as all of you I think know, very, very involved in the day-to-day business here.”
SAS’ path toward a potential IPO hasn’t been short. Goodnight first announced plans to take SAS public in 2000. In July 2021, the company reintroduced its intention with an aim to be ready for an initial public offering by 2024. The company announced this timeline shortly after a report circulated that it was in talks to be sold to the chipmaker Broadcom.
Not being a public firm, Day said, won’t keep SAS from acting more like one. During the call, he shared that the company has begun matching the operational requirements of publicly traded competitors. “You report earnings and you report revenues at the end of a quarter,” he said. “We haven’t had to do that, just because being a private company.”
As SAS readies to go public internally, the company is also watching the market, which has become more volatile since President Donald Trump announced widespread tariffs in early April. Technology stocks, in particular, have retreated.
“Obviously, there is no way of ignoring reality,” said Saša Pekeč, a professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. “An uncertainty-induced risk premium will naturally affect any (IPO) valuation.”
Approaching its 50th anniversary, SAS is better equipped to face market unknowns than a startup, Pekeč said. Yet he agreed with Day that the company has the “luxury of timing it.”
This story was originally published May 2, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
