Bloomberg: Autodesk thinking about buying PTC
Late yesterday, Bloomberg reported that Autodesk Inc. is weighing an acquisition of rival engineering-software provider PTC Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.PTC is also drawing interest from other industry players, and no final decision has been made...
US Chip EDA sales can resume in China
I genuinely dislike headlines like this, from Reuters this morning: "As trade war truce with China holds, US lifts curbs for chip design software and ethane," because it very much sounds like the restrictions could be reversed at any time. But for now, the U.S....
Uhoh: China may be blocking Ansys + Synopsys
According to a couple of news outlets (here and here, for example), Chinese regulators have now blocked Synopsys's acquisition of Ansys because, the reports say, the US banned US EDA makers from selling in China. Shares of Synopsys and Ansys are both down on the news....
Movement in the EDA/China saga?
News is out this morning that some access to US EDA has been restored in China. I can't find anything from the EDA vendors themselves, but various outlets (here, citing Digitimes, which is behind a paywall; here, a tweet in English discussing a Chinese blogger's post...
Siemens’ update on US China EDA ban – and I have thoughts. Of course I do.
If you recall, last week, the news broke that the US Bureau of Industry and Security (part of the Department of Commerce) had sent letters to Cadence, Siemens, and Synopsys telling them to stop selling specific EDA tools in China. The BIS is concerned that these...
Let’s talk about AI
I'm seeing two very different strategies as engineering/design/manufacturing/construction companies think about artificial intelligence: On the one hand, many bigger companies have teams (usually in IT) who stay on top of machine learning, large language models, and...
US government tells vendors to stop selling EDA in China
During the Synopsys earnings call on Wednesday, an investor asked management if they knew about the Trump administration's letter telling EDA vendors to stop selling in China. Synopsys said no, it hadn't received one, but Ansys, Cadence, and Synopsys shares tumbled...
US FTC weighs in on Synopsys + Ansys, enters public comment period
Late yesterday, the US Federal Trade Commission said that it would approve Synopsys's acquisition of Ansys if the companies divest specific assets that the FTC believes could otherwise lead to "higher costs for the countless everyday products that use computer chips,...
Siemens, Graitec, Trace One, Procore all do deals; Synopsys+Ansys still not closed
I'm still digging out from under the news that accumulated while I was on vacation. Still, I already see that there were (of course) more PLMish deals announcemed over the last few weeks: Siemens Digital Industries Software said it will acquire Wevolver, a site...
FARO to be acquired for $920 million
News came this morning that AMETEK, Inc. is going to acquire all outstanding shares of FARO Technologies' common stock for $44 per share in cash, for a total of around $920 million -- and that per share price is roughly 40% above FARO's closing price on May 5, 2025....