PLMish focus on big data continues: ANSYS snaps up Gear Design

ANSYS just announced that it is merging with Gear Design Solutions, Inc., a provider of big data analytics to the electronics industry. Gear is tiny, with “more than 10 employees”, so it’s not clear why this is a merger and not an outright acquisition; have asked for clarification and will update when I learn the reason. Gear created a purpose-built big data platform for the semiconductor and electronic system design world, which (says ANSYS) “scales elastically across any high performance compute fabric” — implying that it may have applicability in other verticals, too. Even if the focus remains on electronics, that market is enormous and increasingly important in ancillary industries. ANSYS says that the combination of Gear’s data analytics and its own CAE apps can help customers deliver validated designs for earlier sign-off and faster decision-making. ANSYS CEO Jim Cashman said in a press release that “Gear is an exciting addition to ANSYS that will complement our industry-standard offerings for low-power design simulation.” John Lee, CEO of Gear said, “System-on-chip and associated electronic systems are naturally big data problems – the interrelated nature of the billions of unknowns align with the core technologies inherent in Gear’s simulation and analytics platform. We are excited to become part of the ANSYS family with its rich 45-year history of helping customers realize their product promise. We look forward to adding great value to the ANSYS simulation platform and to ANSYS customers.” Details weren’t announced, but the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter 2015. Update 8 June: ANSYS’ Annette Arribas says Gear “is a tech tuck-in acquisition that we are going to merge into our electronics business unit.” Now we know why it’s referred to as a merger.