WorldCAD Access

Sold! MSC Software

MSC Software has sold itself to a private equity group for $360 million (about $7.63 per share). Buyers are Symphony Technology Group and Elliott Management Corp.

Source.

But Lawyers Unhappy

Shareholders Foundation is hoping to cash in on the sale by declaring the price too low. The...

...deal appears to be unfair, given the fact that ... as recently as October 2008, was trading above $10.25 a share, substantially higher than the current offer.

Solution? Sue 'em -- the surefire way of making unhappy lawyers happy again.

Source.

Bhatt Assures Contractors

After a statement from Autodesk sounded to some that it was discontinuing development of its ConstructWare online project management software, owners of half-billion-dollar construction projects became concerned, reports ENR.com in Collaboration Tool Feels a Chill And Hearts Skip a Beat.

But an email from Jay Bhatt, senior vp of Autodesk’s AEC Industry Group, assured them: "The purpose of this e-mail is to tell you we are, in fact, investing in the development of Constructware and moving the product forward."

Again we see the danger in entrusting data to the cloud -- in this case, limited to a few days of worry. The only solution we can trust, however, consists of perpetual licenses for software running on our own servers -- aided by backups to an external site.

LocationLogic Worth $25 million

TeleCommunication Systems is buying Autodesk's old LocationLogic division for $25 million -- $15 million cash and $10 million in TCS stock. But they're not buying the division directly; Autodesk earlier this year unloaded the division to a couple of private equity investors, Hale Capital Partners and Hale Global. No word on the profit the investors made on the sale.

TCS figures the investment will pay off quickly, since LocationLogic generates $18 million a year in gross revenues -- and that the niche is growing 50% a year, as anticipated by market research firm IDC.

Source.

Look Out Nemetschek, Adesk

Rumormongers tell us Dassault Systemes might be in the hunt to buy itself a place in the AEC software market. One option: snap up Gehry Systems whose architectural software already runs on CATIA.

Sold! Autodesk's LBS Business

Autodesk had announced earlier it was getting out of the location-based services business. Today, its LBS division is sold to Hale Capital Partners.

Hale renames the division LocationLogic, but Autodesk keeps a toehold, because it is one of several minority investors. (Dunno who the others are.) The division has offices in Bangalore, Calgary, Kansas City, and San Rafael.

Autodesk is happy to rid itself of LBS, because the move allows... 

...Autodesk to focus its energies on its main line of business, which is creating software for the world's design professionals.

If this statement means "software yes, services no," then what of Buzzsaw?

Source.

CADalyst Buyout Attempt

A rumour circulated earlier this week around the press room at SolidWorks World that CADalyst magazine was on the block. A prominent columnist had already lost his position there, and another columnist told me he heard the magazine's staff was thinking of buying the mag from the pub.

Roopinder Tara did the leg work, and found the rumour to be true: Questex to Abandon Cadalyst Magazine; Staff attempting to raise money to continue publishing.

(I was the magazine's first full-time employee, back in 1985 when the editorial office was still located in Vancouver Canada.)

Inventor Gets Logical

"Let's get logical, logical / I wanna get logical..."

Autodesk bought iLogic from ADN member Logimetrix in December, and now Autodesk is giving it away free to Inventor 2009 users on subscription [Are there any who aren't? - Ed.] under the name of Inventor iLogic Extension 2009. You would use the software to embed engineering info in drawings through rules.

With it now being free, I feel for those who paid $4,300 for the software under its previous owner. 

It's a funny feeling when you find good software, make payment through an act of instinctive generosity to support the company's brilliant staff, and then find that your $$-based gesture has become an unnecessary expenditure. 

Fer instance, I actually paid for Picasa before Google bought it, who then made it free. Since then, however, I've had the benefit of free updates. I suppose that pay-then-free is less worse than a company (like Computer Associates) promising a $9.95/yr fee forever for anti-virus protection, and then doubling it a couple years later. It's worse, because then companies like CA lose paying customers and its ceo gets thrown in jail.

MicroGDS Has New Owners (Again)

Sometimes, you don't know acquisitions have occurred. And even when they do, nothing changes after wards. Like this one:

Software marketing company Selective Software Holdings acquires the British business of Informatix Software International (ISI) from Japanese parent, Informatix Incorporated.

The newly acquired company will keep its Informatix Software International name, and retains the right to develop and market MicroGDS and Piranesi worldwide -- except in Japan.

New versions of MicroGDS CAD software and Piranesi non-realistic rendering software will be released later this year. ISI had acquired the software from US-based Convergent Group in 1997.

The press release leaves out the earlier history of MicroGDS. It was first developed as WinCAD by CADcorp of England, to be a micro-computer version of GDS -- mimicking the path Bentley Systems took in creating a cheaper version of Intergraph's software. ("Micro-computer" was the original term for what we now call a desktop computer.) GDS Solutions was owned by EDS, who also owned UGS (now known as Siemens PLM Systems). Just as Intergraph bought a portion of Bentley Systems, EDS bought MicroGDS, but later sold both to Informatix of Japan.

When MicroGDS was released in 1992, GDS called it the first "professional" CAD package to run on the then-new Windows, which had the benefit of "giving users direct graphical user interface (GUI) 'hotlinks' to other Windows-based applications such as spreadsheets and word processing." 

Autodesk Buys Algor: $34 Million

Upon completion of the acquisition, Autodesk's current intent is to integrate ALGOR into its Manufacturing Solutions business unit and to continue developing and selling ALGOR's core product line.

Autodesk plans to continue developing the ALGOR products with an open approach, allowing direct data exchange between ALGOR products and multiple computer aided design software offerings.  

Full text of press release.

3D Systems: We're Not Under Attack, Honest

3D Systems adopted a poison-pill defense last week, despite the company not being subject to a hostile takeover. Ah, but maybe this is a signal being sent out that it wishes to be bought.

The plan is pretty complicated, one that I can't fully figure out. Perhaps that is the first line of defense, grasshopper: make the poison-pill terms so complex that potential suitors back away.

I think that the pill activates in this manner:

1. A takeover attempt is defined as any entity owning more than 15% of TSDC (the trading symbol of 3D Systems).
2. Special shares will be issued that are initially worth $55.
3. But their value plummets to 1/10th of a penny within ten days of the takeover attempt, I think.
4. Or maybe each $55 right suddenly becomes 1/100th of a share. That's in there, too.
5. ???

You'll need to read the details to figure it out for yourself.

Details.