Actuate's software did for business data what a printing house did for books: it turned raw material into pages people could read. Companies had data spread across many systems. Actuate's Reporting System extracted it, formatted it and pushed the reports to employees and customers. The company first shipped its product in January 1996. When it filed to go public in 1998, it was still losing money, and it was growing through direct sales and partners who built Actuate into their own applications.

A Reporting System, Shipped

Actuate was founded in November 1993 as Actuate Software Corporation. Nicolas C. Nierenberg served as president, chief executive and chairman. Version 3.1 of its Reporting System began shipping in May 1998. The company lost $6.1 million in 1996 and $7.2 million in 1997. It sold directly to large customers and through enterprise application vendors, resellers and distributors, which bundled its reporting tools into their own products.

Eleven Dollars, Then OpenText

Actuate priced its IPO at $11 a share in July 1998 and listed on the Nasdaq National Market as ACTU. It later shortened its name to Actuate Corporation. The company backed BIRT, an open-source reporting project, and stayed independent for more than fifteen years. In December 2014 OpenText, the Canadian software company, offered $6.60 a share in cash. The deal closed in January 2015, and Actuate left Nasdaq.

Cover: Interior of the Lemercier Lithographic Printing House, Charles Villemin. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a printing house (publishing reports).