Kronos Incorporated

Last updated
Kronos Incorporated
Company type Private
FoundedOctober 31, 1977;46 years ago (1977-10-31)
FounderMark S. Ain
DefunctApril 1, 2020 (2020-04-01)
FateMerged with Ultimate Software
Successor Ultimate Kronos Group
Headquarters
Lowell, Massachusetts
,
U.S.
Key people
Revenue$1.433 billion (2019) [1]
Owner Hellman & Friedman
Number of employees
6,000 (2019) [2]
Website www.kronos.com

Kronos Incorporated was an American multinational workforce management and human capital management cloud provider headquartered in Lowell, Massachusetts, United States, which employed more than 6,000 people worldwide. [3]

Contents

In February 2020, the company announced a merger with Ultimate Software and that the combined company would be led by Aron Ain and be called Ultimate Kronos Group. The merger was officially completed on April 1, 2020.

History

Kronos Incorporated corporate headquarters in Lowell, MA Kronos HQ in spring.jpg
Kronos Incorporated corporate headquarters in Lowell, MA

Kronos was founded in 1977 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Simon Business School alumnus Mark S. Ain. [4] Under Mark Ain's leadership, Kronos sustained one of the longest records of growth and profitability as a public company in software industry history. [5]

In 1979, Kronos delivered the world's first microprocessor-based time clock and, in 1985, delivered its first PC-based time and attendance product.

In 1992, Kronos became a publicly-traded company on NASDAQ.

Aron Ain, [6] succeeded his brother Mark Ain as chief executive officer in 2005. [7]

In March 2007, Kronos went private again, bought out for US$1.74 billion by the lead investor Hellman & Friedman and the secondary investor JMI Equity. [8]

In 2012, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals enforced a subpoena seeking production of documents by Kronos, Inc., in an administrative charge before the EEOC alleging disability discrimination. The charge was brought by an individual job applicant against Kroger Food Co., who did not hire the job applicant and used a Kronos assessment as part of its hiring process. [9] Kronos, which was not a party to the litigation, objected to the EEOC's subpoena on the basis that the information requested was irrelevant, and production would require Kronos to disclose protected trade secret information. [10]

In 2014, private equity firms Blackstone and GIC invested in Kronos alongside Hellman & Friedman and JMI Equity. In the transaction, Kronos was valued at $4.5 billion. [11] This was the first year that the company achieved $1 billion in annual revenue. [12]

In 2017, Kronos moved its corporate headquarters from the nearby town of Chelmsford to the Cross Point Towers in Lowell, Massachusetts, consolidating multiple offices under one roof. [13]

In February 2020, the company announced a merger with Ultimate Software and that the combined company will be led by Aron Ain. [14] [15]

In April 2020, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kronos introduced an automated report-generating tool to aid contact tracing. [16] The tool analyzes work and attendance records of employees who test positive (or presumed positive) for COVID-19 to generate a report of potentially affected co-workers. [17]

On December 13, 2021, Kronos announced that, on December 11, it was discovered that Kronos had been subject to a ransomware attack which disabled the functionality of the Kronos Private Cloud software for "up to several weeks". [18] This breach forced many Kronos customers including municipalities, universities, and private employers to resort to alternative methods, including issuance of paper checks, to properly pay their employees. [19]

Acquisitions

Kronos has conducted a number of acquisitions, [20] with some of the most notable including:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unisys</span> American global information technology company

Unisys Corporation is an American multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company founded in 1986 and headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. The company provides digital workplace, cloud applications & infrastructure, enterprise computing, business process, AI technology and data analytics services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SAS Institute</span> American IT and analytics company

SAS Institute is an American multinational developer of analytics and artificial intelligence software based in Cary, North Carolina. SAS develops and markets a suite of analytics software, which helps access, manage, analyze and report on data to aid in decision-making. The company's software is used by most of the Fortune 500.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sybase</span> Enterprise software and services company

Sybase, Inc. was an enterprise software and services company. The company produced software relating to relational databases, with facilities located in California and Massachusetts. Sybase was acquired by SAP in 2010; SAP ceased using the Sybase name in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intuit</span> American financial software company

Intuit Inc. is an American multinational business software company that specializes in financial software. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and the CEO is Sasan Goodarzi. Intuit's products include the tax preparation application TurboTax, personal finance app Mint, the small business accounting program QuickBooks, the credit monitoring service Credit Karma, and email marketing platform Mailchimp. As of 2019, more than 95% of its revenues and earnings come from its activities within the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ADP (company)</span> American software company

Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) is an American provider of human resources management software and services, headquartered in Roseland, New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NICE Ltd.</span> Surveillence and data analytics company in Israel

NICE is an Israeli technology company specializing in customer relations management software, artificial intelligence, and digital and workforce engagement management. The company serves various industries, such as financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, outsourcers, retail, media, travel, service providers, and utilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salesforce</span> American software company

Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, and application development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dayforce</span> American technology company

Dayforce, Inc., formerly Ceridian, is a provider of human resources software and services with employees across its global footprint in the United States, Canada, Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA), and the Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) region. It is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange.

Mindtree Limited was an Indian multinational information technology services and consulting company, headquartered in Bangalore. Mindtree was acquired by Larsen & Toubro in 2019, before being merged with L&T Infotech (LTI) in 2022 to form LTIMindtree.

Epicor Software Corporation is a business software company based in Austin, Texas founded in 1972. Its products are aimed at the manufacturing, distribution, retail and services industries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Workday, Inc.</span> American software company

Workday, Inc., is an American on‑demand (cloud-based) financial management, human capital management, and student information system software vendor. Workday was founded by David Duffield, founder and former CEO of ERP company PeopleSoft, along with former PeopleSoft chief strategist Aneel Bhusri, following Oracle's acquisition of PeopleSoft in 2005.

Mphasis Limited is an Indian multinational information technology services and consulting company based in Bangalore. The company provides infrastructure technology and applications outsourcing services, as well as architecture guidance, application development and integration, and application management services. It serves financial services, telecom, logistics, and technology industries. Mphasis was ranked #7 in India IT companies and overall #189 by Fortune India 500 in 2019. In April 2016, Hewlett Packard Enterprise sold the majority of its stake in Mphasis to Blackstone Group LP for around US$1 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hellman & Friedman</span> American private equity firm

Hellman & Friedman LLC (H&F) is an American private equity firm, founded in 1984 by Warren Hellman and Tully Friedman, that makes investments primarily through leveraged buyouts as well as growth capital investments. H&F has focused its efforts on several core target industries including media, financial services, professional services and information services. The firm tends to avoid asset intensive or other industrial businesses. H&F is based in San Francisco, with offices in New York and London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ultimate Software</span> Former American multinational technology company

Ultimate Software was an American multinational technology company that developed and sold UltiPro, a cloud-based human capital management (HCM) software system for businesses. Headquartered in Weston, Florida, the company was founded in 1990 by Scott Scherr, and it released its first version of software in 1993. As of the fourth quarter in 2017, Ultimate Software reported total revenues of over $940.7 million. As of 2017, the company employs more than 5,000 people and services 4,100 customers in 160 countries. Ultimate had offices around the U.S., Canada, UK, and Singapore. On February 4, 2019, Hellman & Friedman Capital Partners announced it would purchase Ultimate Software Group for $11 billion; the purchase closed on May 3, 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genesys (company)</span> American technology company

Genesys Cloud Services, Inc. (Genesys), formerly Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., is an American software company that sells customer experience (CX) and call center technology to mid-sized and large businesses. It sells both cloud-based and hybrid cloud software. The company was founded in 1990 and was acquired by investment firms Permira Funds and Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) in February 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ServiceNow</span> American technology company

ServiceNow, Inc. is an American software company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops a cloud computing platform to help companies manage digital workflows for enterprise operations. Founded in 2003 by Fred Luddy, ServiceNow is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the Russell 1000 Index and S&P 500 Index. In 2018, Forbes magazine named it number one on its list of the world's most innovative companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UKG</span> American software company

UKG is an American multinational technology company with dual headquarters in Lowell, Massachusetts, and Weston, Florida. It provides workforce management and human resource management services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">API Healthcare</span>

API Healthcare is based in Hartford, Wisconsin and is a developer of healthcare-specific workforce management software. The company is best known for providing workforce management solutions to the healthcare industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dell Technologies</span> American multinational technology company

Dell Technologies Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Round Rock, Texas. It was formed as a result of the September 2016 merger of Dell and EMC Corporation.

Aron Ain is an American software technology executive and author. He became the CEO of UKG in 2020, a role he held until being named UKG Executive Chair, effective July 1, 2022. UKG was created from the merger of Ultimate Software and Kronos Incorporated, and provides global HCM and workforce management solutions. Previously, Ain had been the chief executive officer of Kronos Incorporated since 2005.

References

  1. ↑ "Kronos Has Record 2019: Annual Recurring Revenue Crosses $1 Billion | Kronos". 6 November 2023.
  2. ↑ "Kronos To Hit $1.5B In Revenue In $22.5B Human Capital Software Market". Forbes. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  3. ↑ "Kronos Employees Say Culture, Vision, and Innovation Drive Outstanding Engagement". Businesswire.com. 2015-05-12. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  4. ↑ "Meet Mark Ain" . Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  5. ↑ Turchin, Brian. "THE BIG THREE: MICROSOFT, SAP- AND KRONOS?" (PDF). Software Business. Archived from the original (September/October 2003) on March 29, 2004. Retrieved November 12, 2007.
  6. ↑ Bryant, Adam (September 9, 2016). "Aron Ain of Kronos: The Incalculable Value of a Good Boss". The New York Times.
  7. ↑ "Kronos(R) Announces Executive Succession Plan; Mark Ain to Become Executive Chairman; Aron Ain to Become Chief Executive Officer; Paul Lacy to Become President". Business Wire. September 14, 2005.
  8. ↑ "Today In Business - Buyout Deal For Kronos". The New York Times. March 24, 2007. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  9. ↑ "Appellant v. KRONOS INCORPORATED" (PDF). UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT. June 26, 2012. Archived from the original (No. 11-2834) on October 4, 2013.
  10. ↑ Offer, Meghan O. (October 2, 2012). "Third Circuit Enforces EEOC Subpoena Seeking Test-Maker's Files on Employee Selection Tests Used by Employer". Employment Law Watch. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  11. ↑ Mike Spector; Gillian Tan (20 February 2014). "Blackstone, GIC Invest in Kronos". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  12. ↑ Dan Primack. "Kronos hits $1 billion revenue mark". Fortune. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  13. ↑ Hoban, Michael (September 20, 2017). "From Mill City to Innovation Hub: Relocating a Global Headquarters Outside Boston". Urban Land Magazine. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  14. ↑ Webster, Kayla (February 21, 2020). "HCM giants Kronos and Ultimate Software merge". Employee Benefit News. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
  15. ↑ Gottfried, Miriam; Lombardo, Cara (February 20, 2020). "Two Big Workplace-Software Providers to Merge". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
  16. ↑ Sarkar, Brinda (2020-04-29). "Kronos introduces employee contact-tracing capability". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  17. ↑ Golden, Ryan (2020-04-30). "Kronos unveils contact tracing to track COVID-19 spread at work". HR Dive. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  18. ↑ "Kronos Private Cloud Status Updates | UKG". 2021-12-14. Archived from the original on 2021-12-14. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  19. ↑ Sullivan, Becky; Franklin, Jonathan (2021-12-16). "Kronos hack will likely affect how employers issue paychecks and track hours". NPR. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  20. ↑ Ray-Ghosal, Indrani. "Kronos Acquires Financial Management Solutions Inc. to Deepen Financial Services Industry Expertise". Kronos. CHELMSFORD, Mass. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  21. ↑ "Kronos Acquires Public Safety Scheduling Leader PDSI and its TeleStaff Product". Business Wire. 2 May 2011.
  22. ↑ "Kronos Acquires Australian Workforce Solutions Business of Simplex International Pty. Ltd. in Completion of 2001 Transaction" (Press release). Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  23. ↑ "Kronos Acquires Stromberg from Paychex…from Kronos". HRchitect. October 14, 2009. Archived from the original on November 17, 2014. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  24. ↑ Kizielewiz, Jim (September 22, 2004). "Kronos acquires 3i systems". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  25. ↑ "Kronos Acquires SMB Workforce Management Leader SaaShr.com". Business Wire. March 28, 2012.
  26. ↑ "Kronos Extends Workforce Management Market Leadership With Acquisition of TimeLink". www.kronos.com. August 20, 2013. Archived from the original on August 22, 2016.
  27. ↑ "Kronos Acquires Empower Software Solutions". Yahoo Finance. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  28. ↑ "Kronos Acquires Financial Management Solutions Inc. to Deepen Financial Services Industry Expertise". www.kronos.com. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
  29. ↑ "Kronos Acquires Global Casino Resort Industry Leader Digital Instinct and its Virtual Roster Product". www.kronos.com. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
  30. ↑ "Kronos acquires OptiLink to strengthen workforce management offerings". www.healthcarefinancenews.com. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.