ESI’s FQ1 hints at upward momentum for H2
ESI reported results back at the end of May --travel and US holidays sometimes get in the way of timely blogging-- and they were, at best, mediocre as reported. Currency movements, customers opting for subscriptions and not perpetual licenses, and changes...
5 quick take-aways from Siemens Automation Summit
I spent last week at the Siemens Automation Summit, learning lots and speaking with many, many people who program PLCs, HMIs and otherwise make manufacturing facilities hum. I'm still trying to figure out what to write about in more detail, but...
Quickie: Siemens acquires to build out Mentor’s IC capabilities
Siemens announced today that it is acquiring Austemper Design Systems Inc., a company that makes analysis, auto-correction and simulation technology for integrated circuit (IC) design. This complements Mentor Grpahic’s Questa software, which...
PTC’s LiveWorx foreshadows digital transformations
Technology. Business partnerships. Longtime customers, dragged forward. New customers to be wooed. PTC's annual user conference, now called LiveWorx, is barely over and there is so much to digest and to draw conclusions from -- this blog post is a first stab at...
Bentley steps up 4D, acquires Synchro
Bentley just announced that it has acquired Synchro Software to boost its 4D construction offerings. Think of Synchro as software for virtual design and construction, enabling visual planning, scheduling, and project management. This lets asset...
Quick update on PTC + Rockwell
I'm at PTC's LiveWorx user conference this week. Yesterday, CEO Jim Heppelmann gave a bit more detail on the partnership with Rockwell Automation, announced last week. A quick recap: Rockwell is buying 8.4% of PTC's shares for around $1 billion. PTC will...
Hexagon snaps up SPRING’s NCSIMUL for machining
Hexagon just announced that it is acquiring SPRING Technologies, whose NCSIMUL optimizes the machining workflow from CNC programming to CNC simulation, managing cutting and tool libraries, real time machine monitoring and technical content...
HxGN LIVE merges old and new, urges epic leaps forward
HxGN LIVE, the Hexagon group's annual userfest, brings together thousands of people from manufacturing to fire/rescue/police to construction to mapping professionals. Walking the halls, it's hard not to run into someone who does something I know nothing...
Nemetschek NEVARIS addresses SMB construction with acquisition
I am at HxGN Live, the Hexagon user event that addresses the needs of many industries, including construction. From measuring how well a concrete floor has been poured to planning, scheduling and tracking progress, Hexagon's customers span the gamut in...
DS takes majority position in Centric Software
Dassault Systèmes just announced that it will acquire a majority stake in Centric Software, the privately-held maker of PLM solutions for the fashion, apparel, luxury and retail sectors. DS said that, "with this investment, Dassault Systèmes aims to accelerate the...
Quickie: Historic AVEVA surged in FY18
AVEVA had an awesome fiscal 2018 (ended March 31). You'll recall that the AVEVA merged with Schneider Electric Software earlier this year to create a much bigger company with software that reaches from plant design to operations. That combined...
A few implications of PTC+Rockwell
Yesterday, all I had time to do was tell you about Rockwell Automation's $1 billion stock buy of newly issued shares of PTC, but not to muse on the implications. To be clear, PTC says it will use the proceeds to buy back shares so that the...
Quickie: Rockwell invests $1 billion in PTC for IoT & smart factory
This is big: PTC and Rockwell Automation just announced that Rockwell is making a $1 billion equity investment in PTC, as part of a strategic partnership aimed at accelerating growth for both companies. You can see IoT written large all over...
Altair to sell more shares in follow-on to last year’s IPO
Altair has only been public for a couple of months but today announced that it's filed the paperwork for a follow-on public offering of 5,600,000 shares of its Class A common stock, 3,292,580 shares of which will be offered by Altair and...
Hexagon grows in autonomous
Hexagon has quietly been building out a solid set of assets that get it ever-closer to the coming autonomous world, starting waaay back when it acquired Leica and Intergraph and, last weekend, announced its intent to add AutonomouStuff (great company name,...
Autodesk’s FQ1 a “good start”, call all about cloud, construction
So here's the thing about public companies: they're stuck in an endless loop of setting targets, having others adjust those expectations to suit their own needs, and then either meeting or not meeting other people's forecasts. Autodesk last...
Quickies: Autodesk invests, Hexagon acquires, a VAR business moves
It's been a time of transactions in our little corner of the world. Here's a quick catchup: Autodesk's Forge fund keeps rolling along in the world of AEC, announced its fifth investment in a construction technology supplier in a year. This time, it's eSUB....
Altair tops targets in Q1, acquires rest of FluiDyna
Altair made several significant announcement over the last week, culminating yesterday with its first quarter results. Quickly, Altair reported Q1 revenue that beat expectations, sending its share price up a couple of percentage points after...
Bentley’s corporate update: no IPO, no drama, record cashflow
Do you remember 2015? It feels so long ago. Bentley Systems gave us a glimpse into its business progress, calling it an Annual Report. Then came the possibility of an initial public offering (IPO), quiet periods, market watching to figure out timing (do...
Hexagon CEO’s legal saga continues
Hexagon announced on Wednesday that the Norwegian Court of Appeal has decided to accept the appeal launched by the Norwegian economic crime authority of CEO Ola Rollén's unanimous acquittal in January on charges of insider trading. This...