Hits and Misses of 2008
It's been quite a year -- like most, filled with stuff both good and bad. My top 10 happenings, all related to engineering software:1. Hit: The CAE vendor landscape changed dramatically, as ANSYS bought Ansoft andexpanded its applications footprint even further;...
Peace on Earth
Goodness -- that would be quite an announcement. It's more of a wish ...As the year winds down, we'd like to wish all of our friends and colleagues a joyousholiday season. May your 2009 be better in every way.
Autodesk strengthens CAE offering by acquiring ALGOR
Autodesk announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire ALGOR Inc., of Pittsburgh for approximately $34 million, or (by our estimate) slightly more than two times revenue. Autodesk has said all along that it will continue to seek strategic...
ESI Group cautiously optimistic about Q4
ESI announced Q3 results today that were good -- and not foreshadowing gloom. It's thefirst company to announce results that included October, after the world went into thecurrent financial meltdown. Total revenue for Q3 was up 4% to €13.4 million, with...
"Displaced" workers take advantage of Altair’s offer
According to Mike Kidder of Altair, the company received over 200 applications for itstraining/update program for displaced workers in southeastern Michigan (details below).December course offerings were completely booked within 48 hours of the announcement.Writes...
What do users think of Autodesk’s "Digital Prototyping"?
Yes, I know it seems like "all Autodesk, all the time", but 10,000 people really do have10,000 stories.While I didn't connect with all 10,000 -- not by a long shot -- I did talk with perhaps adozen attendees at Autodesk Manufacturing's keynote session about...
Altair shows the softer side of capitalism
Last week, Altair Engineering announced that it would offer free training courses andsoftware licenses to displaced engineers in southeast Michigan who want to grow theirCAE expertise to increase their marketability to employers. If the program is successful,it may be...
Autodesk acquires iLogic rules-based design software
All user conference come with a blizzard of press releases, and this one almost got lost:Autodesk has announced its intention to acquire iLogic from Logimetrix, a softwarecompany that is part of Cypher Systems Group, a large Canadian developer of businessprocess...
Autodesk University: 10,000 stories
Autodesk University was, as always, overwhelming. Perhaps nine or ten thousand people at the Las Vegas Venetian Resort’s convention center, attending any one of several dozen sessions going at any one time. I tried to hit as many as sessions possible, but could only...
Quick news roundup: AVEVA has great H1, ESI buys VDOT
I'm off to Autodesk University shortly, so this will be brief; more coming after I'm back. AVEVA announced terrific results for their half-year ended September 30, 2008 -- and their shares fell like a stone. The results: revenue increased 32% to £74.8 million (up 31%...
Autodesk talks product portfolio changes, credit crunch
Two more interesting bits of information from the Autodesk’s third quarter 2009 earnings call:Carl Bass, CEO, said right up front that the economy is affecting Autodesk’s customers, buthas a plan to help at least North American customers in the short term. Said Bass,...
Italian supercomputer proves 1 billion cells can be solved
ANSYS announced last week that an Italian research team successfully conducted a1-billion cell simulation to investigate the aerodynamics of an America's Cup yacht, reachinga milestone in the simulation world. To give context, a typical ANSYS Multiphysicsbenchmark for...
Autodesk sees tough times ahead
Autodesk reported good results for the quarter ended October 31, 2008 but spoke ofuncertainty ahead. Since the earnings release happened at the same time as the AutodeskManufacturing group’s industry analyst event described below, I was unable to participate inthe...
Digital prototyping, Autodesk style
Autodesk’s Manufacturing group, headed by Buzz Kross, hosted an industry analyst day inLake Oswego, Oregon this week. Kross and his staff presented Autodesk’s “democratizing”vision for the manufacturing space, tying together industrial design, engineering,...
Webinars 101
I get to/choose to attend lots of webinars, seminars hosted on-line to demonstrate technology, inform participants of new releases or teach attendees about a particular subject. Webinars are invariably interesting, but some organizations are FAR better than others at...
The rest of the story: ANSYS post-conference call
ANSYS held an unusually-long Q3 conference call, as a lot of Wall Street types who wereunfamiliar with the company tuned in for the first time since ANSYS joined several newindices. The company took questions for close to an hour, following the typical presentationby...
What economy? ANSYS turns in another solid performance
ANSYS reported another strong quarter this morning, leading to the preliminary thought thatanalysis tools may not be as affected by the overall economic downturn as other technologyareas. ANSYS reported both GAAP and non-GAAP data, to reflect the affects of the...
MSC beats expectations
MSC Software posted good results today, with total revenue up 11% from last year to $63.7million. Revenue from large deals was up significantly, as both the size of the average largedeal and the number of large deals increased markedly. MSC reports that a year ago...
Uh-oh: Autodesk warns for Q3
Autodesk this morning issued a terse press release saying that preliminary results showthat revenue will be in the range of $604 million to $607 million -- far below the earlierforecast of $630 million.The press release contains the following from Carl Bass, CEO:...
PTC not for sale?
On today's earnings call, PTC CEO Dick Harrison was asked to comment on thewidely-circulated rumor that PTC was for sale. Replied Harrison, "We're not shopping thecompany." So there.
