Done deal: DS now owns IBM PLM

Dassault Systèmes announced today that it has completed its acquisition of IBM’s PLM sales and support organization has been completed. The $600 million transaction includes customer contracts and related assets and allows DS to present a single “face” to its PLM customers. Al Bunshaft, who had been global vice president of IBM PLM, has been appointed managing director of the DS Americas organization. In his new position, Bunshaft will be responsible for the structure, management and evolution of American business operations for Dassault Systèmes. In a press release announcing the closing of the deal, DS CEO Bernard Charlès said, “We are happy to integrate close to 700 highly knowledgeable sales and support people from IBM… Our customers and partners have fully endorsed this transformation, which allows us to be closer to our clients, to increase knowledge-sharing and to further enhance support services. The unique combination of both companies’ expertise and best practices will bring the value of V6 PLM applications to every enterprise in every business. We are rapidly reaching a new level of customer engagement built on commitment, multi-industry knowledge and high-value solutions for sustainable innovation.” From conversations with IBM, it is apparent that IBM continues to see large market opportunity to build technology layers that can be used by many PLM (and other business software) suppliers. It can most credibly address users of all the PLM brands if it is agnostic, and gaining a bit of separation from DS will only help there. That said, DS is still an important partner for IBM and the knowledge its developers and consultants have of that brand’s solutions can’t be ignored.