| Type | Public (NASDAQ: SPRT) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Services, Tech Support, Help Desk, Online tech support |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Headquarters | Redwood City, California, USA |
| Key people | Josh Pickus (CEO) Shelly Schaffer (CFO) Anthony Rodio (COO) Greg Wrenn (General Counsel) |
| Owner(s) | Public |
| Website | www.support.com |
Support.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPRT) is a US-based multinational computer technology corporation that provides online tech support. It is headquartered in Redwood City, California, USA. Support.com provides online computer support to consumers and home-based business across the United States and Canada via remote access. Their services are performed on PCs running Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 and Apple machines running Mac OS 10.5 or higher, with a high-speed broadband connection.
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Support.com was incorporated in Delaware in December 1997 under the name Replicase, Inc[1]. The company started in a subleased corner of an Excite@Home office by Mark Pincus, Scott Dale, and Cadir Lee. At that time the focus was on developing and improving the company's DNA Probe technology. The technology allowed for probing a Windows Application executable and determining all its dependencies (Registry, Filesystem, DLLs, etc.)
Just a few months later, in September 1997, Pincus was back in business. With the help of two programmers/partners, he launched a software company in Redwood City, Calif., called Replicase Inc. Having already hired 15 employees, he said he spent most of his time "handling administrative crap," mapping out his business strategy, and, of course, networking. "So pleased" was SoftBank's Lax with his last deal with Pincus that the venture firm invested $2.5 million in Replicase. FreeLoader is already a distant memory. Reflecting on its demise, Pincus says, "It was a bummer, but it wasn't the end of the world."
In October 1998 the company was renamed Tioga Systems, Inc.[2], coinciding with the relocation of the corporate headquarters to Palo Alto. The company's focus moved to "Self-Healing Software" - the idea that Windows applications could automatically fix any problems they encountered[3].
In 1999 Radha Basu took over as CEO, coming from HP[4][5].
In December 1999, the company again changed its corporate name to support.com, Inc.[6] with the acquisition of the domain support.com[7] from Tom Theo Klemesrud, and focused on providing web-based software solutions for enterprise IT, referred to as PCHealth eSupport[8]. The IPO took place on July 19, 2000, backed by Credit Suisse First Boston[9][10][11].
On March 28, 2002, support.com was renamed to SupportSoft, Inc.[12].
In 2006 Josh Pickus became CEO, coming from Computer Associates. His goal was to restructure the company and get on the path to growth. This led to a consumer facing operation for the company. The corporate headquarters were moved to the Pacific Shores Center, Redwood City, California.
On June 23, 2009 the enterprise technology of SupportSoft was acquired by Consona Corporation. The company was renamed back to Support.com[13].
Support.com corporate headquarters are located in Redwood City California, with a satellite office in Bangalore, India.