Sterling Software: An $8 Billion Success Story in the 1980s and 1990s

From 1981 until 1999, while I was a consultant to Sterling Software, Inc., the company grew from a startup that bought four computer software companies for less than US25 million to an international computer software and services powerhouse. During those 18 years, Sterling Williams, the CEO and driving force behind the company's growth, and Samuel E. “Sam” Wyly, the chairman of the board and its financial mastermind, operated on the principle of “Buy, don't build.” They acquired close to 80 companies, including the hostile takeover of Informatics General in 1985, a company with 10 times its sales at that time. In early 2000, Sterling Software was sold to Computer Associates International and Sterling Commerce was sold to SBC Communications for US4 billion each. This is my description of one of the most successful and influential computer software and services companies of the 20th century.