Bloomberg: Autodesk thinking about buying PTC
Late yesterday, Bloomberg reported that Autodesk Inc. is weighing an acquisition of rival engineering-software provider PTC Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.PTC is also drawing interest from other industry players, and no final decision has been made...
US Chip EDA sales can resume in China
I genuinely dislike headlines like this, from Reuters this morning: "As trade war truce with China holds, US lifts curbs for chip design software and ethane," because it very much sounds like the restrictions could be reversed at any time. But for now, the U.S....
Uhoh: China may be blocking Ansys + Synopsys
According to a couple of news outlets (here and here, for example), Chinese regulators have now blocked Synopsys's acquisition of Ansys because, the reports say, the US banned US EDA makers from selling in China. Shares of Synopsys and Ansys are both down on the news....
Movement in the EDA/China saga?
News is out this morning that some access to US EDA has been restored in China. I can't find anything from the EDA vendors themselves, but various outlets (here, citing Digitimes, which is behind a paywall; here, a tweet in English discussing a Chinese blogger's post...
Siemens’ update on US China EDA ban – and I have thoughts. Of course I do.
If you recall, last week, the news broke that the US Bureau of Industry and Security (part of the Department of Commerce) had sent letters to Cadence, Siemens, and Synopsys telling them to stop selling specific EDA tools in China. The BIS is concerned that these...
Let’s talk about AI
I'm seeing two very different strategies as engineering/design/manufacturing/construction companies think about artificial intelligence: On the one hand, many bigger companies have teams (usually in IT) who stay on top of machine learning, large language models, and...
US government tells vendors to stop selling EDA in China
During the Synopsys earnings call on Wednesday, an investor asked management if they knew about the Trump administration's letter telling EDA vendors to stop selling in China. Synopsys said no, it hadn't received one, but Ansys, Cadence, and Synopsys shares tumbled...
US FTC weighs in on Synopsys + Ansys, enters public comment period
Late yesterday, the US Federal Trade Commission said that it would approve Synopsys's acquisition of Ansys if the companies divest specific assets that the FTC believes could otherwise lead to "higher costs for the countless everyday products that use computer chips,...
Siemens, Graitec, Trace One, Procore all do deals; Synopsys+Ansys still not closed
I'm still digging out from under the news that accumulated while I was on vacation. Still, I already see that there were (of course) more PLMish deals announcemed over the last few weeks: Siemens Digital Industries Software said it will acquire Wevolver, a site...
FARO to be acquired for $920 million
News came this morning that AMETEK, Inc. is going to acquire all outstanding shares of FARO Technologies' common stock for $44 per share in cash, for a total of around $920 million -- and that per share price is roughly 40% above FARO's closing price on May 5, 2025....
Hannover Messe: Manufacturing’s big show
Over the last few weeks, I've been briefed by a lot of PLMish companies about what they'd be showcasing at Hannover Messe, the giant trade fair in Germany that looks at all things smart manufacturing. Almost 130,000 people attended this year to hear from 4,000...
5 on a Tuesday: Hexagon, Siemens + Dotmatics, Nano + Desktop, Rescale, Chinese/Hungarian BIM — oh my
There is a LOT going on, so it's time for a catch up. Earnings season is about to start again, and we've already had one early report: Hexagon pre-announced Q1 results that missed expectations on both revenue growth and margins. (Recall that Hexagon doesn't issue...
So, Tariffs. What does that mean for our PLMish universe?
When I was a kid, the US imposed tariffs on Japanese cars. Why? Because high gas prices led consumers to want smaller, more efficient cars, and American automakers only produced gas-guzzlers. To make domestic cars more attractive and to buy time for the US makers to...
PTC acquires IncQuery Group for ALM business
PTC also announced an acquisition today, one that appears more of a tuck-in than a new-industry-maker: It has acquired IncQuery Group, which offers application lifecycle management (ALM) and systems engineering products and services. Neil Barua, PTC's CEO, said, "The...
Siemens makes $5 billion life sciences R&D acquisition
Never boring. The ink is barely dry on the paperwork that finally closed the Altair deal, and today, Siemens announced that it will acquire Dotmatics, a leader in life sciences R&D software, for $5.1 billion. Siemens says Dotmatics "offers a market leading...
Siemens + Altair = done deal
Finally! This morning, Siemens announced that it completed the acquisition of Altair Engineering for an enterprise value of $10 billion. Siemens' CEO Roland Busch said, "We welcome the Altair community of customers, partners and colleagues to Siemens ... Through the...
Accelerating Action at Altair’s Future.Industry 2025
Altair recently invited me to be on a panel at its Future.Industry 2025 event, focusing on how women in technology can align with this year's theme for International Women's Day. Go here to see the panel session's recording and to check out the rest of the event....
Apparently no new divestitures in Synopsys+Ansys
Synopsys just issued a press release about the UK's tacit approval of its intention to acquire Ansys. It's brief, and simply says We are pleased that the CMA has formally cleared the transaction in Phase 1 subject to previously...
UK regulator approves Synopsys+Ansys
Super quick while we wait for more details: Reuters just reported that the UK's Competition and Markets Authority won't seek further review of Synopsys' proposed acquisition of Ansys, in effect approving the deal. The article says that the regulator accepted "certain...
Hexagon to spin off ALI and SGI into NewCo in early 2026
Earnings season is almost over, and there's a lot to catch up on, but news just came into the inbox that Hexagon has decided that it will, indeed, spin off its ALI business. What is that, you ask, and what does it mean for longtime Smart[Plant] users? As it is right...
