News bites

Mar 29, 2010 | Hot Topics

Lots of things come over the transom that I find very interesting but don’t have time to do much about. But they’re too cool to keep to myself, so … CFD on a Mac Sympscape (aka Caedium) was mentioned in this blog a while back for making CFD results available via...
The real impact of the 2009 debacle

The real impact of the 2009 debacle

Mar 15, 2010 | Hot Topics

I’m updating market models for 2010 and beyond and got to wondering: How long will it take the PLM vendor group to return to 2007, pre-recession, revenue levels? (Comparisons with 2008 are easier but won’t work, since many of the vendors started feeling the slowdown...

Smaller vendors matter too

Mar 4, 2010 | Hot Topics

We get so caught up in the earnings releases of the major PLM vendors that we forget that other companies in the PLM universe also release information, much of it more closely tied to specific geographies or subsegments. Their results help round out the picture of the...

Is it all good news?

Feb 24, 2010 | Hot Topics

A couple of people have emailed about yesterday’s posts on Autodesk’s Q4 results, asking if there were any negative aspects to the earnings data released. That’s a fair question since I focused on the bright spots in what really was a dismal year for the engineering...

Autodesk “focusing on things we can control”

Feb 23, 2010 | Hot Topics

Autodesk offered more information during its Q4 earnings call, the most startling of which was that it closed 22 deals over $1 million in Q4 — a staggering 3x the total of the first 9 months added together. A number of these were in AEC and in North America and...

Autodesk Q4: things are looking up

Feb 23, 2010 | Hot Topics

I am fascinated by the varying types of spin put on earnings releases. Autodesk released what are really quite positive year-end results but one media headline read only “Autodesk FY10 revenue down 26%.” True, but not even the tip of the news iceberg and reflecting...

PTC’s swagger is back

Feb 18, 2010 | Hot Topics

PTC held their annual media and analyst day on the day “Snowmaggedon” was supposed to hit the Boston area. It amounted to not much of anything but did keep a few participants and a speaker or two away, and sent several people scurrying by mid-afternoon. Those of us...

Dassault Systèmes: Done with 2009, ambitious for 2020

Feb 18, 2010 | Hot Topics

Dassault Systèmes reported results last week that showed revenue declined in all major products lines and all geographies, with the company’s large installed base providing a nice cushion of recurring revenue that forestalled an even more dramatic decline. DS has put...

Avatech looking up and out

Feb 17, 2010 | Hot Topics

Avatech Solutions yesterday announced results for its second fiscal quarter 2010 (ended December 31, 2009). Like its peers, Avatech saw FQ2 revenue far below last year’s level but on a flattening trajectory – perhaps signaling that the worst of the recession is...

Dassault Systèmes Q4: slow recovery

Feb 11, 2010 | Hot Topics

Dassault Systèmes’ earnings call is in an hour, so this is all gleaned from the materials released earlier today. Much more color commentary coming later:For Q4, • total revenue was €339.0 million, down 11% as reported from a year ago, but up 16% from Q3. For the sake...