tech support help desk online tech support founded 1997 headquarters redwood city california usa key people elizabeth cholawsky ceo roop lakkaraju cfo greg wrenn general counsel & secretary owner public subsidiaries sammsoft superantispyware righthand it website www.support.com support.com inc. 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 microsoft windows xp windows vista windows 7 windows 8 and apple machines running mac os x 10.5 or higher with a high speed broadband connection . contents 1 history 2 aol s computer checkup scareware litigation 3 directors 4 office locations 5 patents 6 references 7 external links history edit 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 what the company referred to as their 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 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 . citation needed in 1999 radha basu took over as ceo coming from hp . 3 4 in december 1999 the company again changed its corporate name to support.com inc. 5 with the acquisition of the domain support.com 6 from tom theo klemesrud and focused on providing web based software solutions for enterprise it referred to as pchealth esupport . 7 the ipo took place on july 19 2000 backed by credit suisse first boston . 8 9 10 on march 28 2002 support.com was renamed to supportsoft inc. 11 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 . 12 on december 31 2013 both support.com and comcast entered into a termination agreement as reported during the quarterly reporting which would set to end the contract between the two companies which would end the signature support services on march 31 2014 . this resulted in support.com to downsize and terminate several hundred employees in the workforce as well as subsequently downsizing their corporate office employees as well . 13 on april 1 2014 josh pickus resigned from his position as an officer and director . mr. pickus agreed to remain an advisor to the board of directors following his departure . 14 aol s computer checkup scareware litigation edit see also criticism of aol aol s computer checkup scareware on february 27 2012 a class action lawsuit was filed against support.com inc. and partner aol inc. the lawsuit alleged support.com and aol s computer checkup scareware which uses software developed by support.com misrepresented that their software programs would identify and resolve a host of technical problems with computers offered to perform a free scan which often found problems with users computers . the companies then offered to sell software for which aol allegedly charged 4.99 a month and support.com 29 to remedy those problems . 15 both aol inc. and support.com inc. settled on may 30 2013 for 8.5 million . this included 25.00 to each valid class member and 100 000 each to consumer watchdog and the electronic frontier foundation . 16 judge corley wrote distributing a portion of the funds to consumer watchdog will meet the interests of the silent class members because the organization will use the funds to help protect consumers across the nation from being subject to the types of fraudulent and misleading conduct that is alleged here and eff s mission includes a strong consumer protection component especially in regards to online protection . 15 aol continues to market computer checkup . 17 it is not clear if this latest computer checkup continues to use scareware techniques . citation needed directors edit jim stephens chairman of the board and temporary ceo shawn farschi director mark fries director j martin o malley director michael linton director toni portmann director office locations edit support.com corporate headquarters are located in redwood city california sammsoft office is located in sammamish washington superantispyware office is located in eugene oregon righthand it office is located in louisville colorado satellite office in bangalore india patents edit us 6167358 system and method for remotely monitoring a plurality of computer based systems us 6754707 secure computer support system us 8020190 enhanced browser security us wo0131875 richards mark ; scott dale & cadir lee secure computer maintenance system published 5 3 2001 references edit start up . cash out . repeat . . company renamed tioga systems inc. . hp senior executive joins tioga systems as ceo . edge work group computing report . 1999 . start up tioga poised for growth ; wins excite home deal . company renamed support.com inc. . tom theo klemesrud sells support.com domain support.com announces microsoft pchealth esupport solution press release . archived from the original on april 9 2000 . cs1 maint unfit url link sec ipo filed feb 18 2000 backed by cs first boston . support.com soars in debut . ticker talk . los angeles times . july 20 2000 . company renamed supportsoft inc. . company renamed support.com inc. . support.com comcast cable entered into termination letter agreement . retrieved february 13 2014 . http online.wsj.com article pr co 20140212 916642.html a b davis wendy may 20 2013 . aol support.com settle scareware lawsuit for 8.5 million . mediapost . retrieved october 7 2014 . final judgment order . signed by magistrate judge jacqueline scott corley on 5 30 2013 . aol computer checkup clean & speed up your slow pc try it free . aol inc. 2014 . retrieved october 7 2014 . external links edit support.com official website 10 tips for bootstrapping your technology 3 remote tech support services ticker talk business data for support.com inc. hoover s bloomberg reuters sec filings retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title support.com & oldid 713546597 categories companies established in 1997companies based in redwood city californiacompanies listed on nasdaqsoftware companies based in californiamultinational companieshidden categories cs1 maint unfit urlall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from september 2014articles with unsourced statements from october 2014 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to 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