Since 2000, Siemens spent $1.7 billion on some 4,000 bribes in a dozen countries. Last year, they got fined $1.4 billion by the US and German governments. This week, they got more punishment, this time for bribery involving a World Bank project in Russia.
For the next two years, Siemens is banned from doing business with the World Bank, and must pay $100 million to anti-corruption agencies -- albeit, over 15 years.
The factory lines at Adobe are quiet this week, as employees are forced ["forced"? In the summer time? -Ed.] to take three weeks of unpaid vacation to help the company's leaders cut expenses.
The latest monster release of Creative Suite has been a sales dud, coming as it did last fall. Customers were faced with the dual dilemma of (a) buying upgrades at the start of what looked to be a very scary recession; and (b) upgrading to questionably-useful features.
AVEVA Group reports revenues of £164.0 million (roughly US$262 million), up 29% from last year's £127.6 million. It's pre-tax profit was up 32% to £59.2 million.
The company has £126.2 million cash in the bank. But not is all rosy, says chairman Nick Prest:
As the current global economic slowdown continues and the oil price and shipping rates sit at lower levels than in recent years, some projects are now being postponed or canceled, awaiting project funding or visibility of more certain times.
Monday Autodesk began a new way to sell AutoCAD, through a 12-month license. I'll leave it for for you to figure out the financials -- to figure out if this is a better deal than buying a $3995 perpetual license + $450 subscription or license + occasional $1998 upgrade + or just a perpetual license. Or buy a varient of IntelliCAD for $450.
Some of the rules:
In all other aspects, this is regular AutoCAD, but with a 12-month timebomb. Once the 12 months are over, you might be able to re-license for another 12 months, "pending availability."
Will this offer work? Other CAD vendors over the years have announced "software rentals," as this is sometimes called, but I have a feeling that none of them worked out, and I think that the offers were subsequently pulled.
Autodesk sees this as a way to solve the problem where short-term seats are needed for specific projects. Perhaps this offer was tailored to economic stimulus projects planned in the United States. Ironically, this software rental is not permitted for government accounts, perhaps because sales are up in that area, as an Autodesk PR person yesterday tweeted.
The share price of ADSK zooms up over 10% on news that the company's sales fell sharply in the last quarter.
Autodesk reports that its revenues have fallen in all regions of the world, and in all sectors:
Cuts are expected to total $250 million this fiscal year.
Autodesk reports a net loss for Q1 of $32.1 million due to:
Autodesk plans to lay off another 430 employees, but then hire 100 for other positions. The company expects the losses to continue in the next quarter (Q2) on forecast revenues of $395-$420 million.
Avatech Solutions reports Q3 revenues of $8.0 million, down 37.5% from $12.8 million a year ago. The net loss was $0.15 million, down from a profit of $1.0 million last year.
The building and manufacturing markets continue to be adversely affected by the recession, forcing our customers to reduce costs and postpone investments in new software and services.
...said ceo George Davis.
The city of Vancouver wants to change to an Open City, declares the mayor.
Vancouver, BC is Canada's third-largest city and next February's host of the 2010 Winter Olympics. And is headlined by Autodesk as the third pilot city of its Digital Cities initiative.
Next week, that may start to come to an end. On Tuesday, mayor Gregor Robertson will be supporting counselor Andrea Reimer's motion on Open Data, Open Standards and Open Source.
The motion calls for the city of Vancouver to share its data with citizens through open file standards -- for data, documents, maps, and other media -- and open source software. The motion recognizes that there is a cost to distributing data, but that these should be minimal; the motion recognizes that it not easy to to switch over:
...when replacing existing software or considering new applications, will place open source software on an equal footing with commercial systems during procurement cycles.
Not that open source = free. While open source is often free to acquire, there is (usually) optional maintenance (subscription) cost attached that allows software developers to make their living. And so the motion figures that promoting open source might also promote related economic activity locally.
Cadastral Information Society
Heh: can you imagine trying to replace AutoCAD with something that's open source? CAD, not; GIS and DOC, maybe.
So what brought this on? I've spent some time attempting to track down the background to this motion, but ended up with just one clue (plus a rumor I won't reprint now). The motion states that Vancouver does not belong to the Cadastral Information Society. This is the only organization that the motion mentions by name, and is a non-profit that promotes the sharing mapping data between governments (runs on Geocortex). I wonder: does this desired change in mapping supplier indicate some kind of backlash against Digital City?
It would appear the cost of closed-source software is a concern/opportunity for some. I could see city hall looking to save some money, especially after the shock $750 million subsidy its surprised taxpayers are suddenly shouldering to complete the Olympic Athletes Village on time.
Update
Adena Schutzberg presents a different interpretation on the effect this motion would have, should it be adopted: Does a Vancouver proposal related do open source mean a new GIS?
Large CAD vendors are experiencing declining revenues during this economic lull; for some of them, the bulk of revenues comes from annual subscription payments -- and so the software vendors are touchy about losing subs. Customers aren't really keen on paying hundreds of dollars for questionable benefits, especially for CAD seats formerly filled by now-fired employees.
For Autodesk, the hammer is the solution: 'stop making payments on our software, and we'll charge you a 50% penalty when you come whimpering back to us.'
For SolidWorks, the solution is the carrot: 'we'll extend your subscription by 12 months.'
Maybe after this recession, CAD vendors will mimic Microsoft (again) and begin to impose multi-year subscriptions. As with Microsoft, this would get them off the hook of delivering upgrades every year, as well as create a bridge effect over short-lived recessions.
Recent Comments