MSC’s customer focus pays off
The tagline for the MSC Software user conference last week was “MSC Reloaded” -- and, in many ways, that appeared to be the case. I didn’t think to ask, but if the analogy of “aim --> fire --> reload --> fire” is being made, MSC is very nearly ready to...
AVEVA hints at good start to F2012
AVEVA today hinted at results for the six months ending September 30 and announced that full details will be published on November 15. As expected, performance was strongest in Latin America, South Korea and Central and Eastern Europe, especially in oil and gas....
DS strengthens composites sim
Dassault Systèmes today announced that is has acquired Simulayt Limited, a provider of composites and advanced draping simulation technology. We all know composites are where it’s at in terms of reducing weight while meeting performance requirements, so this...
Vero acquires Edgecam
Vero Software, the UK-based provider of CAD/CAM and CAE solutions for the tooling industry, today announced that it is merging with Planit Holdings, a developer of CAD/CAM software for the production engineering, sheet metal, metal fabrication and woodworking sectors...
AVEVA acquires Z+F UK
AVEVA today announced the acquisition of Z+F UK Limited, maker of the LFM software suite of 3D laser scanning software packages. AVEVA and Z+F UK have been partners for years, releasing increasingly sophisticated tools to integrate the output from laser scanning with...
RAND focuses on profit
Rand Worldwide yesterday reported fiscal 2011 revenue of $89.2 million and net income of $1.8 million. Since this is the first year of reporting after the reverse merger of Rand and Avatech, along with a change in the fiscal year-end, it is difficult to draw...
Acquisition mania
I've been working on a mid-year update of my market numbers for CAE (which show better than expected growth to date in 2011) and am stunned by the rapid pace of acquisitions we've seen this year. It's one thing to note them as they happen, but when you line them all...
News you may have missed, 16 Sept
The industry’s acquisition binge continues, with news of a new deal just about every week: Bentley invests in TEEC Bentley Systems announced yesterday that the company has taken a minority equity stake in The Engineering Essentials Company (TEEC) and placed a person...
ESI: CAE Virtual Reality
ESI Group reported today that revenue for the second quarter was up 11% to €19 million, on license revenue growth of 12%. CEO Alain de Rouvray said, “The second quarter saw an acceleration in the growth of our activity, particularly in Europe. Over the first half, the...
MuM sells distribution business
Mensch und Maschine Software (MuM) just announced that it had sold off its software distribution business to the Tech Data Group for around €25 million, about 2/3 of which which will be paid in at closing and the other 1/3 to be paid out depending on business...
Siemens PLM, Boston, Rain
Last week I got to spend several days with the Siemens PLM team at their annual analyst event. Rain poured down outside as the remnants of another hurricane washed by but we were toasty dry inside, taking in over 20 hours of presentations, demos and meetings. I know I...
MSC acquires FFT, Actran
MSC Software today announced that it has acquired the Belgian company Free Field Technologies (FFT), a provider of acoustics and NVH simulation software for the automotive, aerospace and other industries. MSC’s press release says that “bringing FFT together with MSC’s...
Autodesk ramps up its plant offering
Earlier this week, Autodesk announced the release of the Autodesk Plant Design Suite, 3 flavors of integrated apps that support multidisciplinary plant design. You can go here for the details of what is in the standard, premium and ultimate suites packages or to...
What you might have missed, 1 Sept
A lot happened while I was on vacation, and I’m still trying to catch up. A couple more headline-y bits from the overflowing inbox:Spaceclaim 2011+Spaceclaim last week announced the 2011+ release of its eponymous software. This release has a heavy focus on building...
Robots and speed at SolidWorks 2012 launch
I spent yesterday in Concord, Massachusetts, home of the Minuteman, the "shot heard round the world" and other US Revolutionary War sites, but I wasn't there for the history. SolidWorks invited press and analysts to its world headquarters for a preview of SolidWorks...
What you might have missed, 23 August
So I went on vacation last week. And the world of engineering software kept going, perhaps even ramped up a bit even though I wasn’t around to pay attention. Here are a few of the news bits I found most compelling from my time away:SGI acquires OpenCFDLast week SGI...
News roundup for August 12
Last week’s earnings fever has died down, but there were still a couple of items of note this week when much of the northern hemisphere is on vacation: CENIT CENIT reported this week that it saw “increased demand ... especially from the manufacturing industry and from...
Trimble and Hexagon – mixed picture
It was a very busy week of earnings and economic news as global markets tried to figure out how the budget situation in the US would play out. In general, though their share prices were dragged down by larger economic news, engineering software company reports were...
ANSYS Q2 makes investors smile
ANSYS today announced results for Q2 and outlook for the rest of the year that sent shares up by over 5% in early trading on the NASDAQ and finally answering some questions about its Apache acquisition. ANSYS reported revenue for the second quarter of 2011, up 18% to...
New licenses lift Cimatron’s Q2
Cimatron, the Israeli and American CAD/CAM supplier, reported today that total revenue in Q2 was up 19% to $10 million on strong sales of new licenses in all territories and product lines. The company reports that new license sales were up 41% in constant...
