A deal to buy data analytics and data management leader SAS, a privately held company with annual sales around $3 billion, could be valued as high as $15 billion to $20 billion.

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.

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.

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CARY – SAS is recognized as a Leader in 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Science and Machine Learning Platforms. (1) This is the eighth consecutive year for SAS to be recognized as a Leader in this Magic Quadrant.

SAS, the longest standing leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Science and Machine Learning Platforms, maintains a strong and adaptive market position for composite AI, MLOps and decision intelligence.

Across the globe, organizations are aspiring to operationalize analytics and accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) adoption to facilitate better, more intelligent business decisions,” said Susan Kahler, AI Strategist at SAS. “SAS advanced analytic solutions, which offer innate integrations with popular open source tools, give users at all levels of an organization access to agile, powerful advanced machine learning to help master the complex data that’s in cloud environments.”

The 2021 Gartner report evaluated SAS for its completeness of vision and ability to execute. SAS believes this recognition can be attributed to SAS® Visual Data Mining and Machine Learning, a comprehensive visual and programming interface running on the SAS® Viya® engine. SAS Visual Data Mining and Machine Learning supports the end-to-end data mining and machine learning processes for team members of all skill levels to handle all tasks in the analytics life cycle in a simple, powerful and automated way.

According to the Gartner report: “To achieve fully mature, advanced analytic capabilities, organizations must plan for and invest in the end-to-end data science life cycle. The life cycle includes processes for accessing and transforming data, conducting analysis and building analytic models, operationalizing and embedding models, managing and monitoring models over time to reassess their relevancy, and adjusting models to reflect changes in the data and business environment.”

The latest release of the SAS Viya platform debuted in February and is designed to be delivered and updated continuously. The cloud-native software enables customers to efficiently democratize analytics throughout their organizations, while seamlessly managing analytic workloads and building SAS into a variety of applications.

Learn more about top industry analyst firm recognitions for SAS AI, machine learning and advanced analytics capabilities: sas.com/en_us/news/analyst-viewpoints.html.

1. Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Data Science and Machine Learning Platforms, Peter Krensky, Carlie Idoine, Erick Brethenoux, Pieter den Hamer, Farhan Choudhary, Afraz Jaffri, Shubhangi Vashisth, 1 March 2021.

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Gartner has recognized SAS as a Leader in its 2020 Magic Quadrant for Data Science and Machine Learning Platforms. The report evaluated SAS for its completeness of vision and ability to execute. This is the seventh consecutive year for SAS to be recognized as a Leader in this Magic Quadrant.

“Machine learning, and more broadly artificial intelligence, is the new standard for businesses to make profitable decisions or avoid unknown risks,” said Susan Kahler, AI Strategist at SAS. “SAS machine learning and artificial intelligence solutions address the end-to-end process of turning raw data into actionable insights. We’re empowering organizations to quickly and easily solve complex analytical problems to drive real results.” From reducing patient risk of hospital-acquired infections to making roadways safer, SAS is helping to transform lives in big and small ways.

SAS^® Visual Data Mining and Machine Learning, running on the SAS^® Viya^® engine, supports the full data mining and machine learning processes for team members of all skill levels to handle all tasks in the analytics life cycle.

Want to see more about what SAS can do? Watch the SAS Visual Data Mining and Machine Learning demo on YouTube.

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Data Science and Machine Learning Platforms, Peter Krensky, Pieter den Hamer, Erick Brethenoux, Jim Hare, Carlie Idoine, Alexander Linden, Svetlana Sicular, Farhan Choudhary, 11 February 2019. The report was previously titled Magic Quadrant for Data Science Platforms and Magic Quadrant for Advanced Analytics Platforms.

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