Unrest at Avatech

Mar 31, 2010 | Hot Topics

You may recall that Avatech Solutions, like many companies in the engineering software space, had a difficult 2008/2009 in response to the economic realities faced by its government, AEC and manufacturing customers. The company rebounded a bit in its last reported...

Mentor Graphics acquires Valor

Mar 18, 2010 | Hot Topics

Taking a page from the PLM playbook, Mentor Graphics announced on March 18 that it had acquired Valor Computerized Systems, extending its reach from design into manufacturability. The net price paid was about $50 million. Valor did not report revenue for the fourth...

Measuring: You really do get what you measure

Mar 17, 2010 | Hot Topics

This is the last in a series of articles exploring business metrics and their usefulness in the engineering software space. The last few articles in this series have covered metrics that I believe are important in running a business but, of course, in order to analyze...

ESI Group sales up 7% for 2009

Mar 16, 2010 | Hot Topics

ESI Group reported results yesterday for the year ended January 31 — and investors like. A lot. ESI’s share price is up over 7% at mid-day trading in Paris. The details: • Total revenue for the year was €75.1 million, up 7.1% as reported or nearly 4% in constant...
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...

ANSYS Q4 beats but more cautious about 2010

Feb 25, 2010 | Hot Topics

ANSYS reported mixed results today: on the one hand, the company reported Q4 revenue of $150.4 million, handily beating the projected $136 million to $142 million and sweeping it to a 2009 revenue total of $517 million, up 8%. It should be noted that this includes...

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...