Hits and Misses of 2008

Dec 31, 2008 | Hot Topics

It’s been quite a year — like most, filled with stuff both good and bad. My top 10 happenings, all related to engineering software:1. Hit: The CAE vendor landscape changed dramatically, as ANSYS bought Ansoft andexpanded its applications footprint even...

Peace on Earth

Dec 21, 2008 | Hot Topics

Goodness — that would be quite an announcement. It’s more of a wish …As the year winds down, we’d like to wish all of our friends and colleagues a joyousholiday season. May your 2009 be better in every way.

Autodesk strengthens CAE offering by acquiring ALGOR

Dec 17, 2008 | Hot Topics

Autodesk announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire ALGOR Inc., of Pittsburgh for approximately $34 million, or (by our estimate) slightly more than two times revenue. Autodesk has said all along that it will continue to seek strategic...

ESI Group cautiously optimistic about Q4

Dec 11, 2008 | Hot Topics

ESI announced Q3 results today that were good — and not foreshadowing gloom. It’s thefirst company to announce results that included October, after the world went into thecurrent financial meltdown. Total revenue for Q3 was up 4% to €13.4 million, with...

"Displaced" workers take advantage of Altair’s offer

Dec 10, 2008 | Hot Topics

According to Mike Kidder of Altair, the company received over 200 applications for itstraining/update program for displaced workers in southeastern Michigan (details below).December course offerings were completely booked within 48 hours of the announcement.Writes...

Altair shows the softer side of capitalism

Dec 8, 2008 | Hot Topics

Last week, Altair Engineering announced that it would offer free training courses andsoftware licenses to displaced engineers in southeast Michigan who want to grow theirCAE expertise to increase their marketability to employers. If the program is successful,it may be...

Autodesk acquires iLogic rules-based design software

Dec 8, 2008 | Hot Topics

All user conference come with a blizzard of press releases, and this one almost got lost:Autodesk has announced its intention to acquire iLogic from Logimetrix, a softwarecompany that is part of Cypher Systems Group, a large Canadian developer of businessprocess...

Autodesk University: 10,000 stories

Dec 7, 2008 | Hot Topics

Autodesk University was, as always, overwhelming. Perhaps nine or ten thousand people at the Las Vegas Venetian Resort’s convention center, attending any one of several dozen sessions going at any one time. I tried to hit as many as sessions possible, but could only...

Quick news roundup: AVEVA has great H1, ESI buys VDOT

Dec 1, 2008 | Hot Topics

I’m off to Autodesk University shortly, so this will be brief; more coming after I’m back. AVEVA announced terrific results for their half-year ended September 30, 2008 — and their shares fell like a stone. The results: revenue increased 32% to £74.8...