Quickies: Mensch und Maschine on digital twins for machining — and have pie for Pi Day
Last month, at the start of earnings season in our PLMish world, Germany's Mensch und Maschine (MuM) released preliminary figures for 2023 that showed solid business execution, even as Autodesk fiddles with its pricing and changes how buyers will work with it and its...
Cadence to buy BETA CAE for $1.24 billion
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?...
Sandvik to acquire Cimquest, the CAM & 3DP reseller
We interrupt space and earnings news to tell you about another acquisition: Sandvik has announced that it will acquire Cimquest, the largest Mastercam reseller. (Remember that Sandvik acquired CNC Software, the maker of Mastercam, in 2021.) In the press release,...
“Welcome to the Moon”
Yesterday was SUCH a strange day. It started normally enough for a Thursday during earnings season: try to catch up on the earnings released the evening before — while answering emails about them and other recent doings. Oh, and all of the non-earning stuff, too. I...
Keysight+ESI = so far, so good
We’re deep into earnings season and getting a sense of where things stand. Most PLMish companies seem cautious about the near term, with more optimism about the second half of calendar 2024. I’ll try to do a recap soon, but today, I want to focus on Keysight, the...
Altium to be bought by Japanese chipmaker Renesas for nearly $US 6Billion
From the "I did not see this coming" file, news just broke that Renesas Electronics will acquire Altium for AUS$9.1 billion (roughly $5.91 billion) in an all-cash transaction. You may remember that in 2021, Autodesk offered AUS$38.50 per share for...
Nemetschek’s view: AEC is doing OK, thank you very much
Remember how the VAR results I wrote about yesterday showed some weakness in AEC? Like many things, that may be the case, but not for everyone. The Nemetschek Group just announced preliminary results for 2023 that beat the revenue and margin forecasts set just last...
Being a VAR is tough: updates from Mensch und Machine, Addnode, and Rand
Mensch und Maschine (MuM) reported preliminary Q4 and 2023 results yesterday, and that prompted me to look: Addnode's results came last week, and Rand Worldwide published an update last month — so, let’s take a look at the value-added reseller economy, at least, as it...
Dassault Systèmes reports Q4 2023, all in on subs
Earnings season is in full flow, and it's time to catch up. Sandvik and SAP told us that the December quarter was pretty good. Demand was better than expected; those projected economic slowdowns, the effects of wars, and supply chain interruptions weren’t as harmful...
4 on a Monday: SAP and Sandvik report results, GT acquires, more on Synopsys+Ansys
PLMish and PLM-adjacent earnings ramp up this week, with PTC, Hexagon, Dassault Systèmes, and others announcing, but we’ve already some news. SAP, the enterprise software biggie, announced that Q4 revenue was €8.5 billion, up 5%, and that total revenue for fiscal 2023...
Autodesk moves into proptech with AEC deals
Autodesk announced last night that it will acquire partner company Payapps for an undisclosed amount. Payapps (aka GCPay in North America) makes a cloud-based solution that automates the payment process between general contractors and subcontractors. Financial terms...
“Synopsys to Acquire Ansys, Creating a Leader in Silicon to Systems Design Solutions”
Well ... now we know. Synopsys announced that it plans to acquire Ansys. Deal details below, but look at their headline (press release here), pasted as the title of this post. I'm sure that's the intent behind the deal: to create a more comprehensive EDA solution; but...
Welcome to 2024! Deal fever continues …
I hope you were able to catch a little downtime over the year-end and that your 2024 is off to a great start. We had three winter storms in a week, lost power, shoveled a lot of snow — and are looking at more of the same for this week. But we’re safe and warm and...
May your 2024 …
… be filled with joy, health, and happiness! No, we haven't had this much snow yet this winter -- but it is a beautiful photo, no? From https://picryl.com/media/winter-snow-wintry-nature-landscapes-a30c59
AU 2023: Focus on platforms, granularity and AI
Ah, Autodesk University. Thousands of people and too few escalators. Designers and makers and architects and construction teams, all in one place. Las Vegas, usually prettying itself up for holiday visitors at this time of year, was instead prepping for a Formula One...
AVEVA World showcases connection of data, functions, people
Let’s face it: AVEVA is fascinating. It started 50 years ago as a Cadcentre, a spinout from the UK's Cambridge University. It was a sleepy tech company for a long time, then maybe 10 years ago, it got noticed. Schneider Electric did/didn’t/partly acquired the company,...
Bentley YII 2023 highlights spectacular projects, reinforces data stewardship
How to describe Bentley’s Year in Infrastructure (YII)? It’s a chance for the AEC world’s media to hear from some of the most innovative infrastructure projects on the planet, how they use technology from Bentley Systems and others to bring these assets to life, and...
Nemetschek goes all in on dTwins
When I was with Graphisoft last month, I had the chance to speak with Graphisoft CEO Huw Roberts and Nemetschek’s César Rodriguez about Nemetschek’s vision of the future, one in which its brands are better integrated (while remaining open to outside third parties) and...
Graphisoft’s Archicad 27 aims to put the fun back into BIM
Last month, I spent time with the Graphisoft team in Budapest, ostensibly for the launch of the newest version of Archicad (27, of those keeping count) but really to get a glimpse into what the team there sees as the main issues facing architects, designers and their...
Another ESI update: new CEO, Olfa Zorgati, to manage rest of acquisition
Remember how I wrote yesterday that it seemed nothing would happen in Keysight Technology's acquisition of ESI Group since it was now in the hands of regulators? I couldn't have been more wrong. As expected, ESI's board told regulators that it approved the acquisition...