nyse fds industry computer services founded september 1978 ; 38 years ago 1978 09 founder howard wille and charles snyder headquarters norwalk connecticut u.s. number of locations 43 in 18 countries key people f. philip snow ceo revenue us 1.006 billion fy 2015 1 operating income us 331 million fy 2015 1 net income us 241 million fy 2015 1 total assets us 737 million fy 2015 1 total equity us 532 million fy 2015 1 number of employees 8000 fy 2016 1 website www.factset.com factset research systems inc. trading as factset is a multinational financial data and software company headquartered in norwalk ct united states . the company provides financial information and analytic software for investment professionals . 2 for fiscal year 2015 factset s annual sales were 1.006 billion . 1 factset offers access to data and analytics to analysts portfolio managers and investment bankers at global financial institutions . the company does not offer products for individual investors . factset s business focuses on technology and client service . in addition to combining disparate databases the company also develops its software . factset provides clients with consultants telephone support and training . 3 factset has been listed as one of forbes 200 best small companies . 4 its competitors include bloomberg l.p. thomson reuters s & p capital iq and rsrchx . contents 1 history 1.1 1977 1980 1.2 1981 1989 1.3 1990 2000 1.4 2000 2009 1.5 2009 present 2 products and services 2.1 products 2.2 services 2.3 clients 3 financial data 4 investor concerns 5 management 6 recruiting 7 references 8 external links history edit 1977 1980 edit factset was founded by howard wille and charles snyder in 1978 . their partnership began in 1977 when the two were working on wall street at faulkner dawkins & sullivan . 5 as computers became more prominent at the end of the 1970s wille and snyder thought that the industry was changing . when shearson purchased faulkner dawkins and sullivan and the company started to expand wille and snyder decided to set out on their own and test their idea for a company that could deliver computer based financial information . at the time companies had to purchase raw data directly from a vendor such as compustat then hire programmers to make the data user friendly . wille and snyder s vision would offer usable data directly to the client . originally all data was delivered to clients on paper often by bike messenger . the first and namesake product was a program called company factset which produced a four page company analysis report using the value line database . today factset users connect to factset s private network via wan internet and wireless devices . 1981 1989 edit in the early 1980s factset employees numbered fewer than 10 . in 1981 snyder found a way to download data from the factset computer into visicalc meaning that clients could retrieve data from a database directly into a spreadsheet . for the first time several steps in the process were eliminated making the data download process dramatically quicker . in 1984 factset added limited screening capabilities which were expanded in 1988 with the introduction of universal screening which allowed users to stipulate their own screening criteria . another development during the 1980s was the 1989 release of the company s private database service . users could now store proprietary data and integrate it with their own information to perform custom analysis . 5 current chairman philip a. hadley joined the company as a consultant in 1985 . 1990 2000 edit factset for windows was released in 1990 . that same year company headquarters moved from new york city to greenwich ct. a london office opened in 1993 the first in europe . the first asia pacific office opened in tokyo in 1995 . by the end of 1995 factset had fewer than 400 customers but they included 84 of the united states top investment managers . the company also changed its name in june 1995 becoming factset research systems inc. in preparation for becoming a public company . the company began trading on the new york stock exchange in 1996 under the symbol fds . 6 in 1997 the company released portfolio management workstation which was followed a year later by the economic analysis and company explorer applications . the product became easier to use in 1998 with the release of the directions interface and the addition of online assistant a web based help and reference tool . factset introduced 24 hour live telephone support in 1999 . wille retired as ceo and chairman in may 2000 snyder stepped in as ceo on an interim basis serving until september of that year when hadley was named the new ceo and chairman . 2000 2009 edit new products in the early 2000s included a portfolio returns product spar style performance and risk that allowed portfolio managers to analyze the risks and performance of their own funds as well as compare them with peer funds ; the data central application which allowed subscribers to create and save their own time series databases ; and marquee which combined real time news and stock quotes with security level analysis . 5 in 2004 the company s sell side platform ibcentral was released . also in 2004 the company relocated headquarters and consolidated its three connecticut offices to norwalk ct. sales topped the 200 million mark for the first time in 2002 and 500 million in 2008 . in 2008 factset acquired a copy of the thomson reuters worldscope database which it develops and markets as factset fundamentals . 2009 present edit in 2009 factset combined its directions marquee and ibcentral platforms into one product called factset . 7 the platform combined the features of the previous platforms with new shared online workspaces and faster analytics . also in 2009 factset integrated data explorers short selling data on the factset research systems analytics platform . 8 in january 2010 factset and firstrain announced a partnership that would allow factset clients to access firstrain s web research engine that finds filters and analyzes unstructured business data available online . 9 in june 2008 factset completed the acquisition of the thomson fundamentals database . 10 in june 2010 factset acquired market metrics a market research firm situated in the united states that is solely focused on surveys conducted on advisor and insurance products . 11 highlights of 2011 include the addition of a package for colleges and universities in january 12 the integration of proquote trading functionality in april 13 and the addition of trucost environmental research data in august . 14 in june 2012 factset acquired streetaccount which provides real time company updates portfolio and sector filtering email alerts and market summaries for investment professionals . 15 in 2013 factset acquired revere data a provider of a line of business industry taxonomy now branded factset revere . 16 on february 9th 2015 factset acquired code red inc a leading provider of research management technology to the financial community . 17 on october 16th 2015 factset completed its acquisition of portware llc a leading multi asset execution management system ems provider . according to factset press releases the 265 million acquisition factset s largest to date aims to provide the investment community with state of the art analytic and execution applications across more of the portfolio lifecycle from analyst to portfolio manager to trader . 18 19 products and services edit products edit factset provides financial information and analytical applications to global buy and sell side professionals including portfolio managers market research and performance analysts risk managers sell side equity researchers investment bankers and fixed income professionals . factset s software platform also called factset includes real time news and quotes company and portfolio analysis multi company comparisons industry analysis company screening portfolio optimization and simulation predictive risk measurements alphatesting and tools to value and analyze fixed income securities and portfolios . 20 factset is available via wireless devices such as ipad and iphone and is integrated with microsoft office applications . 21 services edit consulting each firm is assigned a consultant who becomes familiar with client needs and processes . clients also have access to consulting services phone support . 22 training factset hosts free training seminars in its new york boston chicago london paris and tokyo training centers . consultants can also arrange personalized training sessions at client offices . 23 security factset maintains physical electronic and procedural safeguards to address security and business continuity risks . multiple access points every factset client receives access on an office pc laptop and wireless device . clients edit as of august 31 2014 there were over 54 500 users of factset up 7 % year on year . the number of clients subscribed to factset increased by 10 % to 2 743 . the annual client retention rate stands at 93 % . 24 financial data edit in 2003 factset research systems inc. changed the presentation of its revenues in order to report on a net rather than gross basis . as a result all financial information for periods prior to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2003 were restated . 25 for 2014 factset s 36th year of operation the company recorded its 34th consecutive year of revenue growth . 24 for the fiscal year ended august 31 2014 factset revenues increased to 920 million growing 7 % year on year . operating income rose 12 % to 302 million . net income advanced to 212 million as compared to 199 million in 2013 a 6 % increase . diluted earnings per share increased by 11 % to 4.92 . 24 for the quarter ended february 28 2015 second quarter of fiscal 2015 revenues advanced to 247.8 million up 9.2 % over the prior year . annual subscription value asv was 1.005 billion at february 28 2015 up 8.5 % organically over the prior year . 26 income statement all numbers in usd thousands 24 period ending 31 aug 15 31 aug 14 31 aug 13 31 aug 12 31 aug 12 31 aug 10 total revenue 1 006 768 920 335 858 112 805 793 726 510 641 059 net income 241 051 211 543 198 637 188 809 171 046 150 211 investor concerns edit the company receives data from providers such as barra dow jones russell and lipper . since contractual relationships with third party vendors can be terminated with one year s notice the company tries to maintain relationships with at least two vendors for each type of data . 27 recently the company has attempted to maintain or increase its available content by building its own databases or by acquiring content providers . since 2000 factset has made 10 acquisitions seven of which have been content providers . 28 in 2008 factset bought a copy of thomson s fundamentals database 29 securing permanent access to global financial data going back to 1980 . 30 management edit philip a. hadley chairman of the board of directors 31 f. philip snow chief executive officer and director maurizio nicolelli senior vice president chief financial officer mark j. hale chief operating officer scott g. miller global director of sales rachel r. stern senior vice president strategic resources general counsel and secretary edward baker greene chief human resources officer recruiting edit employee headcount increased by 6 % to 6 639 during fiscal 2014 . 24 most new employees are recruited for the consulting and engineering departments with many coming directly from college . the company s employee retention rate has historically averaged 90 % . 32 references edit a b c d e f g factset 2015 10 k pdf . factset investor relations . retrieved 6 may 2016 . screening for winners by rex moore the motley fool december 8 2003 . yahoo factset profile . finance.yahoo.com . retrieved 2011 01 28 . factset