Duke, BS Econ 2002

SAS Institute is the world's largest private software company with over a billion in revenue and no stock options (http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/...)

It's too bad the use of "the exception proves the rule" in cases like this is a solecism, because this would be the perfect time for it. SAS is the closest thing to an old-style industrial company in the software business.

(In "the exception proves the rule," proves is used in the older sense, meaning to test, not the newer sense, meaning to establish.)