SAS Institute Inc. (pronounced "sass"[1]), headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, USA, has been a major producer of software since it was founded in 1976 by Anthony Barr, James Goodnight, John Sall and Jane Helwig. SAS was originally an acronym for Statistical Analysis System but, for many years, has been used as a tradename to refer to the company as a whole and its line of software products, which have long since broadened beyond the statistical analysis sphere. SAS Institute is one of the largest privately-held corporations in North Carolina and in the software business. [Source: Wikipedia]