Wow. Cadence just announced that it is buying all of the shares of BETA CAE Systems for –hold on– $1.24 billion in a cash (60%) and Cadence common stock (40%) deal.

That’s a lot of money (IMHO, even for a terrific asset like BETA) – why is Cadence doing this? According to the press release, “The addition of BETA CAE’s proven technologies and talent will accelerate Cadence’s Intelligent System Design strategy by expanding its multiphysics system analysis portfolio and enabling entry into the structural analysis segment, unlocking a multi-billion-dollar incremental TAM opportunity … with BETA CAE, Cadence will enter structural analysis, the largest system analysis segment.”

Panagiotis Kouvrakis, chairman of BETA CAE, is quoted in Cadence’s press release as saying, “For more than two decades we’ve led the evolution of engineering simulation, first by establishing our reputation in the land mobility sector, and then successfully expanding to broad deployments across aerospace, defense, biomechanics, electronics, energy and other industries. We are very excited to join the Cadence team and are looking forward to advancing success through our shared values and passion for innovation and engineering, and our unwavering commitment to customers and partners.”

You likely know of BETA CAE for its ANSA pre-processor, but it offers much more: META is a post-processor “for optimally visualizing data and simulation results and creating reports, powered with state-of-the-art augmented reality capabilities. Additionally, BETA CAE’s EPILYSIS and FATIQ solvers enable customers to efficiently solve structural analysis and optimization problems … SPDRM addresses the integrated orchestration of data, processes and resources by providing a simple and intuitive way to capture, deploy, manage and improve CAE processes.”

We’ve long speculated on BETA CAE’s revenue; Cadence’s release says that BETA CAE has annual revenue of about $90 million. Since the deal should close this quarter, Cadence expects BETA CAE to contribute about $40 million to its fiscal 2024 revenue.

And another one bites the dust.