REAL 2015 showcases opportunities in capture, compute & create
What do custom-made dresses for Dita Von Teese, military airfield runways, Ebola containment/patient care and museum displays have in common? Thinking … thinking … At as first glance, not much. But all were prominently featured at last week’s REAL 2015, a gathering to...
ANSYS Q4 2014: SpaceClaim isn’t cute or little, but isn’t material either
Ansys reported record sales for the fourth quarter and full fiscal 2014 last week. Total revenue for Q4 was $254 million, up 8% year/year (y/y) as reported and up 12% in constant currencies (cc), ahead of both the company’s forecast and analyst consensus. Software...
Autodesk’s FQ4 caps off a great year
Last night, Autodesk reported results for fiscal Q4 and fiscal 2015 (ended January 31) that, well, beat just about all expectations. I need to study the details but: Total revenue was up 13% percent to $665 million in FQ4, versus an analyst consensus of $650 million...
A quick preview on a busy earnings day: ANSYS, 3D Systems, FARO
I’m at REAL 2015, the reality capture/compute/create event hosted by Autodesk in San Francisco. It’s been stunning so far to hear from artists, museum curators, city planners, architects, builders and others how they view today’s emerging technologies — and the...
Rand’s CQ4 suffers from a tough comparable in 2013
Rand Worldwide’s fiscal Q2, ending on December 31, 2014 revenue was down as reported year/year (y/y) to $22.4 million — but, excluding one really big sale a year ago, total revenue was up nearly 8%. You may remember that Rand has been reinventing itself, buying back...
MSC acquires Simufact for forming, welding
MSC Software just announced that it has acquired Simufact, maker of Simufact.forming and Simufact.welding, nonlinear simulation software technology for manufacturers. Yes, for forming and welding -- it costs a lot of money to trial these manufacturing processes, and...
DS’s Q4 results show that diversification works — no surprise!
Dassault Systèmes recently announced results for its fourth quarter and full-year 2014 (summarized here) that show how well the company's diversification strategy is working. Start with a growing cushion of repeatable revenue from core products and industries, add...
MuM’s Q4 revenue up 15%
Yesterday's gloomy Trimble news wasn't the start of a trend, it would appear. Today, Mensch und Maschine, the Autodesk VAR and developer of software under the OPEN MIND and other brands, reported that Q4 revenue was up 15% to €37 million, boosting sales for 2014 up...
Trimble had a tough Q4, revenue down 6% y/y
Well, this is a bit of a shock after the mostly upbeat results we've been getting from engineering software companies: Trimble's Q4 revenue was $564 million, down 6% and at the low end of the company's guidance. Wall Street consensus was $579.4 million, so this is...
Bentley acquires maker of 123D Catch technology
The AEC acquisitions keep rolling -- and, so far this year, show a fascinating extension into newer traditional realms. Bentley Systems just announced that it has acquired Acute3D, the French provider of Smart3DCapture software. Smart3DCapture turns photos into 3D...
3D Systems + Cimatron a done deal — circle get tighter
3D Systems announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Cimatron for $97 million. We all knew it was coming, after the deal was first confirmed back in November, but it's still a bit of a shock to realize that there are just two large, pureplay CAM...
FARO acquires ARAS 360 — nope, not that Aras
Things are so hectic right now that I read the headline quickly, did a double-take -- and then read it again: FARO Technologies, the 3D measurement and laser scanning company, acquired ARAS 360 Technologies to add to its accident and crime reconstruction offering. Not...
Hexagon’s 2014 ended strong; PP&M, up 14%
Yesterday we had solid growth from DS, a company still deriving most of its revenue from discrete manufacturing industries. How did the AEC/infrastructure/metrology world fare in Q4? Hexagon says it went well, as organic revenue was up 18% as reported and up 9% on an...
DS reports Q4 revenue up 19%, software up 16%
Dassault Systèmes just reported a Q4 that should make investors quite happy. In Paris, the share price is up around 5% at mid-day local time. Total IFRS revenue was €673 million, up 19% as reported and up 16% in constant currency (cc), right in the middle of guidance,...
Q&A: Pre-announcing earnings, good and bad
People wind up on the Schnitger Corp. website for all sorts of reasons: links from other sites, search engines, the fact that an ancestor was a famous organ builder in German (yup. Didn't inherit that gene.) ... For some reason, today's visitors got here via several...
So much news — so little time: ADSK, ANSS, SSYS
Wow - what a day. And it’s not even 9AM! First up, Autodesk says that most new commercial seats of standalone software will be sold via subscription beginning on February 1, 2016. From the company’s perspective, this move creates revenue stability and visibility,...
Nemetschek Q4 up 26%, F14 up 18%, ahead of forecasts
Nemetschek Group, parent company of Nemetschek, Graphisoft, VectorWworks and other brands, just announced that it blew past forecasts to close out 2014 on a very high note. Q4 revenue was up 25.7% to €65.0 million on organic growth of 12.6%. Total revenue for the year...
PTC’s FQ1 conference call was a masterpiece
PTC’s fiscal first quarter wasn’t perfect and it wasn’t a disaster — but the company’s handling of its conference call with analysts was truly masterful. As teenagers, we all learned that if we didn’t want to tell our parents something, we needed to direct the...
PTC paints a mixed picture for FQ1
It wasn't the best possible Q1 but it could have been a lot worse. PTC reported that total revenue was basically flat with last year at $325 million, as it encourages customers to switch to subscriptions and copes with a discouraging manufacturing economy. On a...
AVEVA sees challenges in oil & gas, growth in power vertical
Surprising, well, no one, AVEVA Group today said that parts of its business are "significantly more challenging due to the well-documented budget constraints among Owner Operator customers in the Oil & Gas industry". On the plus side, its Engineering & Design...
