1985

In 1985, Safeguard Scientifics became the first company of its kind to leverage the benefits of a public structure to support emerging growth companies through subscription rights offerings.

The first partner company to benefit from this structure was Novell, which became a publicly owned company in February 1985 when Safeguard sold 2.3 million shares of Novell’s common stock to its shareholders at $2.50 a share. Safeguard Scientifics shareholders and Novell shareholders were thereafter able to benefit from Novell’s impressive performance.