A quick preview on a busy earnings day: ANSYS, 3D Systems, FARO
I’m at REAL 2015, the reality capture/compute/create event hosted by Autodesk in San Francisco. It’s been stunning so far to hear from artists, museum curators, city planners, architects, builders and others how they view today’s emerging technologies — and the...
Rand’s CQ4 suffers from a tough comparable in 2013
Rand Worldwide’s fiscal Q2, ending on December 31, 2014 revenue was down as reported year/year (y/y) to $22.4 million — but, excluding one really big sale a year ago, total revenue was up nearly 8%. You may remember that Rand has been reinventing itself, buying back...
MSC acquires Simufact for forming, welding
MSC Software just announced that it has acquired Simufact, maker of Simufact.forming and Simufact.welding, nonlinear simulation software technology for manufacturers. Yes, for forming and welding — it costs a lot of money to trial these manufacturing processes,...
DS’s Q4 results show that diversification works — no surprise!
Dassault Systèmes recently announced results for its fourth quarter and full-year 2014 (summarized here) that show how well the company’s diversification strategy is working. Start with a growing cushion of repeatable revenue from core products and industries,...
MuM’s Q4 revenue up 15%
Yesterday’s gloomy Trimble news wasn’t the start of a trend, it would appear. Today, Mensch und Maschine, the Autodesk VAR and developer of software under the OPEN MIND and other brands, reported that Q4 revenue was up 15% to €37 million, boosting sales...
Trimble had a tough Q4, revenue down 6% y/y
Well, this is a bit of a shock after the mostly upbeat results we’ve been getting from engineering software companies: Trimble’s Q4 revenue was $564 million, down 6% and at the low end of the company’s guidance. Wall Street consensus was $579.4...
Bentley acquires maker of 123D Catch technology
The AEC acquisitions keep rolling — and, so far this year, show a fascinating extension into newer traditional realms. Bentley Systems just announced that it has acquired Acute3D, the French provider of Smart3DCapture software. Smart3DCapture turns photos into...
3D Systems + Cimatron a done deal — circle get tighter
3D Systems announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Cimatron for $97 million. We all knew it was coming, after the deal was first confirmed back in November, but it’s still a bit of a shock to realize that there are just two large, pureplay CAM...

