FEA for All - Part 3: Autodesk and ANSYS Just Friends?

First, let me warn readers that an acquisition of ANSYS by Autodesk is pure speculation.

Picture two neighboring families -- one with all boys and one with all girls. The children grow up together. One thing leads another and, soon enough, one of the boys marries one of the the girls. Over the years, more of the boys and girls get married. Finally, only the older boy and the oldest girl remain single. Though the neighborhood buzzes with anticipation, the oldest boy and the oldest girl remain just friends. So it is with the CAD and FEA families. SDRC (now part of UGS) acquires FEMAP. SolidWorks acquires COSMOS. Dassault acquires ABAQUS. PTC acquires RASNA. Bentley acquires REI. But Autodesk and ANSYS remain friends.

Does it not seem logical that Autodesk should buy ANSYS?

ANSYS can't help but look like an acquisition target. It is a well run and continually profitable company that would add considerably to a company's bottom line. Besides, all the other CAD companies big enough to acquire it are already set with their own FEA products. 

Why hasn't Autodesk bought ANSYS? According to the recent financial report, Autodesk is sitting on $257 million in cash. Also, its recent history seem to suggest that its future growth is based on acquisition. Possible reasons could be:

• ANSYS could be too expensive for Autodesk -- and got even more expensive with its acquisition of Fluent.
• Autodesk and ANSYS executives may not see eye-to-eye
• Autodesk may not want to be a player in analysis, wanting to stick to design

Or, would a deal be in the works? CAD Insider asked Buzz Kross, leader of Autodesk's manufacturing division, who only stated his company's policy to not comment on whether an acquisition is underway.

Comments

[anonym]

Maybe Autodesk buy something smaller like revit FEM partner CSI, RISA or ROBOBAT ?

[structur]

Consider the possibility that ANSYS bought Fluent as a defensive move (ultimately offensive) to prevent Dassault from buying them. There are some technical reasons Dassault is screwed for advanced coupled analyses. They can go buy StarCD if they want. But Abaqus and Fluent were already deep in integration (FSI). Who would have ever thought of ANSYS of a CFD house?

I don't ever see ANSYS mgmt allowing a buyout from a CAD house. I was at PTC when they screwed up Rasna. PTC sales mgmt had no idea how to position/sell Mechanica. There are plenty of ANSYS sr. mgrs that remember that lesson.

[Billmce]

Autodesk only paid US$182 million for Alias.

Ansys market cap according to ( http://www.corporateinformation.com/snapshot.asp?Cusip=03662Q105 )
Is about US$1.7 billion. So yeah I would say Alias was a small acquisition.

Autodesk has a market cap of about US$6 billion. Dassault is in the same range and UGS is somewhat smaller. It is a relatively big acquisition for any of them in my humble opinion but certainly not out of the range of possibility.

You would get big to remain independent if you want to control your own destiny and they certainly could gain efficienies in distribution givent their models are similar. Also since they are going to be essentially competing against indirect distribution getting it cost efficient is probably prudent.

[ralphg]

ANSYS is a public company, so all Autodesk has to do is buy up 51% of its shares to own the company. Naturally there are tactics ANSYS could employ to make Autodesk back away, such as have a clause that fires all ANSYS executives should the company be taken over (aka poison pill).

[Dolata]

Why would anyone make an acquisition for the sole purpose of making themselves to big to buy? Couldn't they just refuse to sell? And isn't Alias a big acquisition?

[Billmce]

AutoDesk buy ANSYS? Not likley. the ANSYS guys are way to smart for the AutoDesk crew. And Autodesk has no history of buying large companies. It's not their style. It would be far more likely for Autodesk to buy something like Algor or some other small time FEA house than ANSYS.
Besides, my guess is ANSYS merged with Fluent to try and gt to big to buy by the CAD houses. They already had CFX so they really didn't need another Fliud code....