Computer Associates

Computer Associates International, Inc is a computer software company, founded in New York by Charles B. Wang in 1976.

Products

As of November, 2004, the company offers the following software product lines:

Life Cycle Management: AllFusion (e.g. AllFusion Harvest Change Manager)
Data Management and Application Development: Advantage
Enterprise Management: Unicenter
Portal and Business Intelligence: CleverPath
Security Management: eTrust
Storage: BrightStor
History

Founded by Queens College graduate Charles B Wang along with others including Russell M Artzt 1976, CA has been based in New York since then.

CA began by selling CA-Sort, a product created by a Swiss company that was also called Computer Associates. By 1980, the American CA had done so well that it could afford to buy the Swiss CA.

In 1981 the company made its IPO and is now listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

In the early 1990's a rapidly expanding CA moved its headquarters from Garden City, NY to Islandia, NY after receiving an attractive tax-free proposal on a large plot of land in Islandia, just north of the Long Island Expressway.

Wang served as both Chairman and CEO for over 20 years until he retired in 2002 and was succeeded eventually in both roles by his long time collegue Sanjay Kumar.

In April, 2004, in the face of a well publicized accounting scandal, Kumar stepped down as CEO, and in May, Ken Cron was nominated interim CEO. Finally, in November, 2004 the company named IBM executive John Swainson CEO Elect.

CA is the world's third-largest independent software company with approximately 16,000 employees, and was a 1999 IndustryWeek 1000 company.

Today, CA has many offices throughout the United States and the world, including offices in six continents, including in England, Germany, France, India, China, Latin America and Israel.

Controversy

In 2000, a class-action lawsuit accused founder Charles Wang, co-founder Russell Artzt and then president Sanjay Kumar of wrongly reporting more than $500 million in revenue in its 1998 and 1999 fiscal years, in order to artificially inflate the stock price. A previous stock option set in 1995 specified that a certain number of shares would vest when CA's shares sustained a target price. The benchmark was met in 1998, and the three executives combined received nearly $1 billion in CA stock. Since then, at least four other class-action suits have been filed against CA.

In 2004, new management reached a deal with the SEC to pay $225 million in compensation to shareholders victimized by the company's criminal conduct. Former CEO Sanjay Kumar was formally indicted by a grand jury on counts of fraud, and obstruction.

External link

Computer Associates

CA hit with flurry of class-action lawsuits - from CNN (March 11, 2002)

Report: CA probe focuses on 1998, 1999 revenue - from Computer World (May 20, 2002)

CA's ex-CEO is indicted on fraud from CNN (September 22, 2004)

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