Autodesk ups the ante on displaced worker programs

Jun 10, 2009 | Hot Topics

Autodesk announced today that the 4,700 participants in its "Autodesk Assistance Program" have downloaded more than 5,400 products since the program was announced 6 weeks ago. Due to this success, the company is increasing the number of available products in...

Catching Up: Bentley, Intergraph, PTC, Siemens and COFES

Jun 9, 2009 | Hot Topics

I may be quite busy and on travel, but the engineering software world rolls on. A couple of interesting tidbits:- According to Greg Bentley, CEO of Bentley Systems, engineering software provides significant return on investment by improving standards of living through...

AVEVA shares surge on profit

May 27, 2009 | Hot Topics

AVEVA Group plc on Tuesday reported significantly higher profits for fiscal 2009 (ended March 31) as growth across most regions and product areas helped the company to a 29% increase in revenue over last year. Both revenue and profit were slightly better than...

Autodesk slightly exceeds (depressing) expectations

May 21, 2009 | Hot Topics

All day the news dribbled in: Credit Suisse cuts its estimate for Autodesk’s 2010 revenue to$1.684 billion from $1.713 Billion; Bank of America/Merrill Lynch thought that the "focuscould shift from [operating expenditure] cuts to revenue growth" and...

Rackable changes name to SGI

May 19, 2009 | Hot Topics

Remember how I lamented the loss of a brand as venerable as SGI’s? Well, it turns out thatRackable felt the same way, changing its name and ticker symbol to SGI yesterday. In apress release, CEO Mark Barrenechea said that “[l]everaging a unified SGI brand will...

Business still tough for VARs

May 15, 2009 | Hot Topics

Not surprisingly, VARs are not yet seeing any end to the economic turmoil described by thepublic PLM companies in the last few weeks. Avatech Solutions (one of the few publicresellers in the engineering software space) reported a significant revenue decline for...

Sun files with the SEC re suits, possible corrupt practices

May 11, 2009 | Hot Topics

According to Computerworld, Sun filed a quarterly report with the SEC on Friday which included the fact that no fewer than three shareholder lawsuits are in the works to stop the planned takeover of Sun by Oracle. The suits claim that the price is too low and that...

Updated: ANSYS OK in Q1 but lowers 2009 guidance

May 7, 2009 | Hot Topics

ANSYS announced Q1 results today, with GAAP revenue of $116.3 million coming inslightly lower than the company’s earlier forecast of between $117 million and $129 millionbut still up from last year’s reported $109.5 million.Like everyone else in the...

Tata Nano Upscale!

May 7, 2009 | Hot Topics

know you’re all very interested: Tata Motors reports that it sold more than 203,000 Nanocars for a total of 25 billion rupees (or slightly over $510 million) from April 9 to April 25, fordelivery beginning in July. Only about 20% of customers ordered the base...

Updated: MSC interim CEO definitely in charge

May 7, 2009 | Hot Topics

MSC Software announced this afternoon that its results were within guidance and that it is seeing the same declines in new license revenue shown by other PLM suppliers. MSC reported total revenue for the first quarter to $53.6 million, down 12% from last year, led by...

Dassault Systèmes sees tough times continuing

Apr 30, 2009 | Hot Topics

As expected, DS reported that the economic conditions seen in the fourth quarter continuedin the first, leading to a constriction in spending on new licenses as companies scaled backimplementations. Total revenue for the quarter was EU309.7 million, up 1% as reported...

Trip Report: Arizona in April

Apr 23, 2009 | Hot Topics

– is lovely. Stark brown scrubby hills surrounding the city of Phoenix — which stretches onforever. I will definitely go back to climb some of those hills someday, if I can convincemyself that the scorpions and rattlers are more afraid of me than I of...

Surprise! Oracle buys Sun

Apr 20, 2009 | Hot Topics

It hit the wires this morning: Oracle has agreed to pay $9.50 a share for Sun, a transactionthe companies have valued at $5.6 billion, excluding Sun’s cash and debt. The deal givesOracle the ability to sell hardware as well as its database technology — and...

WSJ says venture capital at 11-year low

Apr 18, 2009 | Hot Topics

The Wall Street Journal today has a bunch of stats related to investment by venture firmsover the last several months. A quick summary: In Q1 2009, VCs invested only half asmuch as a year ago — still close to $4 billion but the lowest amount since 1998....

Dassault Systèmes reports a tough Q1

Apr 16, 2009 | Hot Topics

Dassault Systèmes reported that Q1 revenue was around EU310 million, far lower than theearlier target of EU325 million to EU335 million. Said CEO Bernard Charlès in a preparedstatement, "Revenue grew a modest 1% year-over-year, as the business environment,...

Intel thinks we’ve bottomed out

Apr 15, 2009 | Hot Topics

Earnings season is slowly starting. No, Intel is not a PLM company, but it is an importantindicator of global demand. Intel today reported first quarter revenue of $7.1 billion, operatingincome of $670 million and net income of $647 million. The net is far higher than...

Every PLM vendor hearts unemployed engineers and designers!

Apr 7, 2009 | Hot Topics

A bit of an editorial: After yesterday’s barrage of offers of help for unemployed designers andengineers (following the trickle of offers earlier in the year), I asked around to see if anyother vendors were embarking on similar programs. I somehow missed...