Some questions resolved in DS/IBM deal
But some questions remain. First the answers from today’s analyst call. Keep in mind that DS couldn’t answer some of the most pointed questions because IBM PLM is a non-reporting piece of a public company and, as such, DS can’t disclose the unit’s financials. • This...
Largest deal in DS history: buying part of IBM
In the largest deal in its history, Dassault Systèmes announced that it is acquiring the IBM sales and support operations for DS's PLM application portfolio, including customer contracts and related assets, for approximately $600 million in cash. One stated goal of...
Earnings preview: good news ahead?
PTC, Dassault Systèmes (DS) and ANSYS report third quarter earnings over the next ten days, so it’s time for a preview. Each company has kept a tight lid on things, so only insiders know what will be reported but we can look to other company’s reports for...
Three tools to measure Twitter success
Many companies look at hits on a website, clickthroughs from advertising, numbers of “friends” and mentions in blogs (to name just a few) to measure the success of online activities. I’m not sure that these are meaningful, but how can you evaluate success without some...
Innovation = Market Cap?
Does the use of any particular tool lead to recognition by the stock markets? During the opening sessions of the Invention Machine User Group meeting yesterday, VP Marketing Jeff Boehm said that the combined market cap of companies attending the event grew 4.2% in the...
5 billion tweets — and counting
According to Gigatweet, the 5 billionth tweet was delivered sometime today (maybe yesterday - we’re at 5,005,611,937 as I type). That’s a lot of people saying a lot of things, 140 characters at a time.To put this in context, the one billionth tweet was delivered in...
Good news from AVEVA
AVEVA Group today gave preliminary information on its results for the six months ended September 30 -- and it’s surprisingly good. In a press release, AVEVA says that large new capital projects are hard to come by, but that customers’ existing projects and favorable...
Scary publishing news: BusinessWeek sold for <$5 million
I look away for a few days ... It was announced earlier this week that BusinessWeek was sold by McGraw-Hill to Bloomberg for under $5 million. BusinessWeek, founded in 1929, used to be the magazine of record of the business world (less opinionated than Forbes, more...
Small world: Gallello takes reins at MSC
Symphony Technology Group (STG) announced today that it has completed its acquisition of MSC Software for a grand total of $390 million and that Dominic Gallello will be taking over as CEO.According to the press release, STG "will build a stronger company,...
Shareholders vote today on MSC/Symphony deal
MSC.Software Corporation holds a meeting today at 9AM Pacific at which shareholders will have their say on the deal reached last month with Symphony Technology Group to buy the company for $8.40 per share in cash. The share closed yesterday at $8.41, so someone still...
Social media can lead to problems, threaten success
Interesting lessons to be learned as a vendor tiptoes the line between success and disaster: A vendor (nowhere near the engineering software/PLM world) sent out an email announcing the imminent release of a new product. With permission, this email was posted on a...
Maintenance: 7% or 22% — or something in between?
InformationWeek last week published a very interesting article on the options available to software vendors as they determine how to price maintenance. In case you missed it: SAP customers revolted earlier this year, refusing to support a maintenance price increase...
Autodesk selects first Algor resellers
Autodesk is finally announcing that seven resellers have been selected and are qualified to sell the Algor product line. Before its acquisition by Autodesk, Algor products were available in the US through online and telephone sales and in the Europe, the Middle East...
AVEVA weighing acquisitions and cashback
We’ve been watching AVEVA’s share price climb on the London Stock Exchange and wondered why. The company hasn’t reported financials, no massive new wins have been announced, economic news is looking up but isn’t great... But now we have a clue: According to Investors...
Are we done? MSC accepts Symphony offer of $8.40/share
MSC.Software Corporation announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Symphony Technology Group at $8.40 per share in cash. Recall that MSC announced that it had received an offer from third-party private equity firms to acquire the company for...
Update: Avatech sees signs of recovery after dismal FY09
Avatech reported results for the year ended June 30 that highlight the fragility of the VAR channel. For the fiscal year revenue declined 29% to $35.4 million, leading to a net loss of $313,000, or $(0.05) per fully diluted share for the prior year. For the fourth...
Hmm: Some on Wall St think we’re not done with MSC
We’ll find out soon enough, but at least some investors think that MSC has or is about to receive an offer of more than $8.30 per share. The stock closed the week at $8.31 but dipped back to $8.26 in after-hours trading on Friday. We’ve gone from a total deal value of...
What makes good Twitter?
Week two (week one) in the Twitterverse is a study in contradictions. There's almost nothing of a PLMish nature to report; none of the vendors I elected to follow tweeted anything of substance while companies more experienced in interacting this way did post...
Microblogging here to stay?
Wow. The Wall Street Journal says that Twitter is about to close a $100 million round of new venture capital funding that will value the company at $1 billion. The real problem, of course is that Twitter has yet to generate revenue or prove that it has any sort of...
Update: MSC gets yet another offer, postpones meeting
MSC Software announced today that it received a new offer from the unnamed party bidding on the company of $8.30 per share. Symphony now has until September 28 to make a “responsive offer”. Under the original deal struck between MSC and Symphony, MSC may terminate...
