Asure Software is a software company. Prior to September 13, 2007, the company was known as Forgent Networks. After rebranding as Asure Software, the company expanded into offering human capital management solutions, including payroll, time & attendance, talent management, human resource management, benefits administration and insurance services. It also has a software division, NetSimplicity, which specializes in room scheduling and fixed assets management software.
In 2002, while known as Forgent, the company claimed that through its subsidiary, Compression Labs, it owned the patent rights on the JPEG image compression standard, which is widely used on the World Wide Web. Its claim arose from a patent that had been filed on October 27, 1986, and granted on October 6, 1987: by Wen-Hsiung Chen and Daniel J. Klenke. While Forgent did not own Compression Labs at the time, Chen later sold the company to Forgent before joining Cisco. Critics claim that the legal principle of laches, hence not asserting one's rights in a timely manner, invalidates Forgent's claims on the patent. Critics also noted the similarity to Unisys' attempts to assert rights over the GIF image compression standard via LZW patent enforcement. The JPEG committee responded to Forgent's claims, stating that it believes prior art exists that would invalidate Forgent's claims, and launched a search for prior art evidence. The 1992 JPEG specification cited two earlier research papers written by Wen-Hsiung Chen, published in 1977 and 1984. JPEG representative Richard Clark also claimed that Chen sat in one of the JPEG committees, but Forgent denied this claim. In April 2004, Forgent stated that 30 companies had already paid US$90 million in royalties. On April 23, lawsuits were filed against 31 companies, including Adobe Systems, Apple Computer and IBM, for infringement of their patent. On September 26, 2005, Axis Communications, one of the defendants, announced a settlement with Compression Labs Inc.; the terms were not disclosed. As of late October 2005, six companies were known to have licensed the patent from Forgent including Adobe, Macromedia, Axis, Color Dreams, and Research In Motion. On May 25, 2006, the United States Patent and Trademark Office rejected the broadest part of Forgent Networks claims, stating prior art submitted by the Public Patent Foundation invalidated those claims. PubPat's Executive Director, Dan Ravicher, says that the submitters knew about the prior art but failed to tell the USPTO about it. On August 11, 2006 Forgent Networks received notice from the NASDAQ stock market regarding non-compliance with the minimum bid price rule, which can lead to delisting, before coming back into compliance in January 2007. The company issued a press release on November 1, 2006 stating that they settled their remaining claims against roughly 60 companies. It was reported that the settlement came to $8 million and was paid by, among other companies, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems.
Forgent Networks shifted its focus to a computer controlled video system allowing playback during recording. This technology is very common in modern-day digital video recorders. While the patent was filed in 1991, the first litigation was initiated in 2005. On May 21, 2007, U.S. District Court of Eastern Texas ruled in favor of EchoStar Communications Corporation, on grounds that the patent is invalid.
Asure Software
After Forgent Networks acquired iEmployee and subsequently changed its name to Asure Software, the website of the combined company no longer listed information related to the two patents - '672 and '746, compared to the old Forgent Networks website.
Proxy Fight
In 2008, the company was the target of a proxy fight launched by Pinnacle Fund and Red Oak Partners, managed by David Sandberg, who initially proposed a slate of 6 directors to replace the company's board. After a period of negotiations which included the unrelated resignation of one member of the board, a slate of 5 new directors was elected on August 28, 2009 to replace the previous board.
Acquisitions
On September 13, 2007, Forgent acquired iEmployee. On October 3, 2011, Asure Software announced that it has acquired ADI Time®, a Warwick, R.I.-based leading vendor of cloud computingtime and attendance software and labor management services. On March 21, 2016, Asure Software announced that it had acquired Mangrove Employer Services, which developed software relating to human resource management. Asure began massive layoffs in June 2016 of previous Mangrove employees. In May 2017, Asure Software acquired the Tampa-based company Compass HRM Inc., for $6 million. Compass HRM Inc. provides services focused on human resources and payroll. In May 2017, Asure also acquired iSystems LLC of South Burlington VT, creators of the Evolution payroll service-bureau software. January 2, 2018 Asure Software acquired Sheakley PaySystems which was Sheakley's payroll and HRIS software division. It was a move to consume Sheakley's payroll clients in the Midwest, mostly Ohio.
