Autodesk #XLR8s its way to Fusion
(Sorry - really bad hashtag-based pun. XLR8 = Accelerate, and the complete hashtag for the event was ##XLR8Fusion.) Autodesk's first Accelerate event happened when PLM 360 was oh-so-new. Autodeskers, VARs and early adopters huddled around laptops to work out how to...
Siemens to acquire Lightwork Design
In transit, so this has to be brief: Siemens just announced that it is acquiring Lightwork Design -- the people you likely know for their gorgeous rendering software, Lightworks. Siemens says that this type of realistic imaging will "help...
Totally OT: #MVGasFire
First, to all of you who reached out to check on me and my family: thank you. We are fine, in our home and sustained no damage. But it's been an interesting ride. Many people remain in shelters, one person has died and dozens were hurt. But not us. We were...
Altair: Bells, clouds, platforms and units bring simulation to the masses
If you've ever watched the news in the US, at some point you will have seen a company ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange (Wall Street) or the Nasdaq (further up the island of Manhattan, in Times Square). I've never given much thought to who or...
#SIAC18 showed that Siemens is more than the sum of its parts
Every year in late August or early September, Siemens throws a big information-fest for industry analysts and journalists where they explore the latest industry trends and technologies, and highlight Siemens' place in its customer/partner ecosystem. It's...
Quickie: Nemetschek acquires MCS Solutions for building ops
Really quickly, since I'm at the Siemens analyst event: Nemetschek just announced that it has acquired MCS Solutions. maker of building management solutions. MCS Solutions currently serves over 1.5 million active users in over 60 countries,...
Siemens and Bentley further cement relationship — no acquisition
Siemens' analyst event hasn't started yet but we've already had 2 important announcements about its relationship with Bentley. One is business/financial and the other is ... product. BIG product. In the financial realm, Siemens and Bentley...
A quick refresher: cloud vs. subs
It seems many people are still confusing the buying mechanism and the delivery mechanism for today's software, so here's a quick recap: You can buy software in many ways, from a one-time payment for an app to an ongoing subscription, to purchasing a pool...
Autodesk’s FQ2 up by almost all measures
Autodesk last night announced results for the fiscal second quarter that surprised almost everyone: revenue of $612 million was up 22% over last year and handily beat analyst forecasts of around $600 million and the company's estimate of $585...
ANSYS says, oops, there weren’t as many of those deals
ANSYS announced results earlier this week, highlighted by a lot of big deals. In the company's prepared remarks it said this: For the second quarter, we had 35 customers with cumulative orders over $1 million, including one customer with cumulative...
Altair revenue up 17% in Q2 – wow
Q2 was awesome across the CAE landscape. First ANSYS reported solid performance due large deals and sales across its portfolio and now, Altair reports that total revenue was up 17% (17!!! -- we don't see that very often), with software revenue up 22% (even less...
ANSYS’ strong Q2 highlights portfolio effect
Note: This blog was written before ANSYS updated its prepared remarks, which lowered the number of big deals from 35 to 27 and the size of the largest from $30 million to $16 million. You can read about that here -- but none of the company's revenue, expense or...
In DS’ Q2, SOLIDWORKS was again the standout
I have been trying to get time to expand on this brief note, but the news is just coming too fast right now. Here is a summary of Dassault Systèmes' (DS) fiscal second quarter results, reported last week. Total revenue of €840 million was up...
Siemens FQ3 flatish, PLM “outstanding”, reorg looms
Yesterday Siemens announced the acquisition of Mendix; today's news was fiscal third quarter earnings and a reorg. Tariffs came up early and often, as the uncertainty surrounding global trading frameworks affect many parts of Siemens' business....
Quickie: Hexagon acquires Guardvent for driver fatigue/distraction detection
Now this is interesting: Hexagon just announced that it has acquired Guardvant, maker of OpGuard, which is used to detect and respond to driver fatigue and distraction. OpGuard is currently used in the mining world, but I can imagine that it has broad...
Siemens acquires Mendix to accelerate MindSphere rollout
Siemens announced earlier today that it plans to acquire Mendix, a company that makes what is called a "low code" application development platform. If you program from scratch in Fortran (horrors), C, C++, C#, that's not low-code. Low-code is a...
Hexagon’s Q2 revenue up 9%, with PPM up 14%, MSC up 8% cc
Hexagon is another serial acquirer, constantly adding companies into its roster --and that's an important part of its strategy-- so today's news that Q2 revenue was up 9% cc on an organic basis is truly good news. Hexagon doesn't give details...
Quickie: GE considers sale of digital assets, maybe including Predix
Several news outlets this morning say that GE is exploring the sale of some or all of its digital assets -- which could include the Predix IoT platform. You might remember that Predix was a big deal at GE under former CEO Jeffrey Immelt but has been...
SAP, ANSYS and digital twins (oh my)
I find it fascinating that SAP is pushing so hard on physics-based IoT capabilities, when it could more naturally come at IoT from the perspective of business analytics. Its partnership with ANSYS is another big step in that direction, adding...
Quickie: Nemetschek revenue up 17% in Q2
So far we've had PLMish earnings; today, Nemetschek chimed in with a report that shows how well AECish companies are doing, too. Total revenue was €114 million, up 17% as reported and up 21% in constant currencies (cc). Since Nemetschek is a...