The company that gave Silicon Slopes its name is about to lose its own.
Domo, the business analytics firm founded by Josh James along the Wasatch Front's tech corridor, will sell substantially all of its assets and employees to Massachusetts-based Progress Software for $400 million in cash, according to a deal announced Wednesday, July 23. The sale price is less than a quarter of Domo's peak $2 billion valuation, reached during a 2015 funding round.
The agreement sets a closing deadline of Monday, November 30, 2026. When the deal is complete, the Domo brand will vanish from public markets. The remaining publicly traded entity will change its name and stock ticker symbol, according to Domo's press release. James and the current board will continue to lead that shell company, which will hold $246 million in net cash ($4.84 per share) and $900 million in accumulated net operating losses that could offset future tax bills. No shareholder vote is required.
For workers along the tech corridor, the immediate outlook is stable. Progress will take on Domo's entire workforce and its customer base of more than 2,400 businesses and cloud data partnerships, according to the company's announcement.
Progress Software CEO Yogesh Gupta said Domo's tools will strengthen the company's data and AI platform, calling the acquisition's capabilities "highly complementary" to Progress's strategy.
What James gets — and what comes next
James, widely credited with popularizing the term "Silicon Slopes" and previously the founder of Omniture (acquired by Adobe for $1.8 billion in 2009), walks away with a renamed public company, a debt-free balance sheet, and a $900 million tax-loss asset. The board said it will explore transactions involving AI and automation to put those losses to work, or it may return capital to shareholders through special dividends or liquidation.
Clint Betts, CEO of Silicon Slopes, praised James in a statement shared with the Deseret News on Thursday, July 24: "No one has done more for Utah's tech ecosystem than Josh James. From Omniture to Domo, now with a new company with plenty of cash, I'm excited to see what he does next."
A long slide from unicorn status
Domo raised $200 million in 2015 at a $2 billion valuation but went public in 2018 at just $511 million. The company has reported losses every year since its IPO. James resigned abruptly in 2022 amid questions about a state tax incentive worth up to $23 million, then returned as CEO in March 2023 after investigations by the Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity and the Utah Attorney General found no wrongdoing.
Domo shares jumped about 30% in the days following the announcement, according to Business Insider, but the remaining company was valued at roughly $190 million — still below its $246 million cash position.
No timeline for the name change or any post-close rebranding has been announced.
