More than 4,500 financial firms ran their unseen work on SS&C: fund accounting, reconciliation, performance reports and trade clearing. Bill Stone had started the Windsor, Connecticut company in 1986. In 2005 a holding company backed by the Carlyle Group bought it. When SS&C Technologies Holdings priced its IPO at $15 a share in March 2010, Carlyle funds still owned about 62.8 percent, and Stone owned about 25.2 percent.

Bill Stone's Connecticut Shop

William C. Stone organized SS&C as a Connecticut corporation in March 1986. The bet was that banks, insurers and money managers would pay for software that handled the exact, tedious work behind every investment. SS&C covered the front office, with trading and modeling, the middle office, with portfolio management, and the back office, with accounting and clearing. It also ran that software for clients as a service. In November 2005, the Carlyle-backed holding company completed its purchase of SS&C.

Carlyle Brings It to Nasdaq

SS&C priced its IPO at $15 a share in March 2010 and listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market as SSNC. The company sold 8,225,000 shares for about $112.3 million in net proceeds and planned to use most of it to pay down debt. Selling shareholders sold more shares alongside. Carlyle and Stone kept control of the company. SS&C still trades on Nasdaq as SSNC and is still based in Windsor, Connecticut.

Cover: Mère Grégoire, Gustave Courbet. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a woman at her counting counter (fund accounting).