Esri

Esri is a software development and services company providing Geographic Information System (GIS) software and geodatabase management applications. The headquarters of Esri is in Redlands, California. The company was founded as Environmental Systems Research Institute in 1969 as a land-use consulting firm. Esri products (particularly ArcGIS Desktop) have one-third of the global market share. In 2002 Esri had approximately a 30 percent share of the GIS software market worldwide, more than any other vendor. Other sources estimate that about 70 percent of the current GIS users make use of Esri products. It has 10 regional offices in the U.S. and a network of 80 international distributors with about a million users in 200 countries. Esri has 2,500 employees in the U.S., and is still privately-held by the founders. In 2006 revenues were about $660 million. They host an annual International User's Conference, which was first held on the Redlands campus in 1981 with 16 attendees. More recently, the User's Conference has been held in San Diego for the past 10 years. An estimated 14,500 worldwide users attended in 2007.