SPSS Inc. was a software house headquartered in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

and incorporated in

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

, most noted for the proprietary software of the same name

SPSS SPSS Statistics is a statistical software suite developed by IBM for data management, advanced analytics, multivariate analysis, business intelligence, and criminal investigation. Long produced by SPSS Inc., it was acquired by IBM in 2009. Versi ...

. The company was started in 1968 when Norman Nie, Dale Bent, and Hadlai "Tex" Hull developed and started selling the SPSS software. The company was incorporated in 1975, and Nie was CEO from 1975 until 1992. Jack Noonan was CEO from 1992 until the 2009 acquisition of SPSS Inc. by

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

. In 2008 SPSS Inc. had sales of Jerry Dicolo (2009)
''IBM to Acquire SPSS, Adding to Acquisitions''
the Wall Street Journal, July 30, 2009. and over 250,000 customers. In addition to the software which shares its name, SPSS Inc. sold a wide range of software for

market research Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers. It involves understanding who they are and what they need. It is an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining com ...

survey research In research of human subjects, a survey is a list of questions aimed for extracting specific data from a particular group of people. Surveys may be conducted by phone, mail, via the internet, and also in person in public spaces. Surveys are used ...

and statistical analysis. These included AMOS (Before 2003, it was part of SmallWaters Corp.) for

structural equation modeling Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a diverse set of methods used by scientists for both observational and experimental research. SEM is used mostly in the social and behavioral science fields, but it is also used in epidemiology, business, ...

, SamplePower for

statistical power In frequentist statistics, power is the probability of detecting a given effect (if that effect actually exists) using a given test in a given context. In typical use, it is a function of the specific test that is used (including the choice of tes ...

analysis, AnswerTree (

decision tree A decision tree is a decision support system, decision support recursive partitioning structure that uses a Tree (graph theory), tree-like Causal model, model of decisions and their possible consequences, including probability, chance event ou ...

software) used for

market segmentation In marketing, market segmentation or customer segmentation is the process of dividing a consumer or business market into meaningful sub-groups of current or potential customers (or consumers) known as ''segments''. Its purpose is to identify pr ...

, SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys to code open-ended responses,

Quantum In physics, a quantum (: quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity (physical property) involved in an interaction. The fundamental notion that a property can be "quantized" is referred to as "the hypothesis of quantization". This me ...

for cross-tabulation,

SPSS Modeler IBM SPSS Modeler is a data mining and text analytics software application from IBM. It is used to build Predictive modelling, predictive models and conduct other analytic tasks. It has a visual interface which allows users to leverage statistica ...

(previously known as Clementine or PASW Modeler) for

data mining Data mining is the process of extracting and finding patterns in massive data sets involving methods at the intersection of machine learning, statistics, and database systems. Data mining is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and ...

and mrInterview for CATI and online surveys. SPSS had forged partnerships with several other high-profile companies such as

Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational computer technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Co-founded in 1977 in Santa Clara, California, by Larry Ellison, who remains executive chairman, Oracle was ...

and participates in a number of US government programs. The company was challenged legally of artificially inflating their stock price in 2004.

IBM acquisition

On July 28, 2009, IBM announced it was acquiring SPSS Inc. for in cash. In January 2010, the company became "SPSS: An IBM Company". Complete transfer of business to IBM was done by October 1, 2010. By that date, SPSS: An IBM Company ceased to exist. IBM SPSS is now fully integrated into the IBM Corporation, and is one of two brands under IBM Software Group's Business Analytics Portfolio.

References

External links

IBM SPSS HomepageStock Market CommentaryWall Street Journal article about IBM acquisition of SPSS, Inc.History of SPSS Inc. from 1968 to 2003.
Software companies based in Illinois Companies based in Chicago IBM acquisitions Former IBM subsidiaries 2009 mergers and acquisitions Software companies established in 1968 1968 establishments in Illinois Defunct software companies of the United States {{US-software-company-stub