This Week’s Technology Acquisitions: Dassault Systemes & Quintiq, PTC & Axeda

As reported by Bob Ferrari, “This week is turning out to be rather significant within the area of product lifecycle management (PLM), manufacturing and service management technology.”

Dassault Systemes announced the signing of a definitive share purchase agreement to acquire supply chain and operations planning software provider Quintiq for approximately €250 million ($338 million). Bob Ferrari

Dassault Systèmes to Acquire Quintiq
The acquisition of Quintiq, headquartered in ’s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, extends Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform to business operations planning and further enables its longtime goal of harmonizing product, nature and life.

“3DEXPERIENCE is about the entire breadth of a business, beyond design, engineering and production. With today’s acquisition, thanks to Quintiq’s highly talented team, we expand our capacity to provide a strategic business experience platform to our customers.” said Bernard Charlès, President & CEO, Dassault Systèmes. “3DEXPERIENCE provides our customers a comprehensive environment to model, simulate and optimize their business from strategic goals to the delivery of memorable experiences.”

“Quintiq has been central to our business operations planning since 2005. As one of Europe’s largest broadcasters, we have a wide array of resources to optimize, including 3,000 people, 900 different production resources, 30,000 stocked items, across 17 sites,” said Dr. Andreas Bereczky, Production Director and Member of the Board at ZDF, the German television broadcaster. “Quintiq technology and expertise will be a great asset to Dassault Systèmes and we look forward to the new innovation that will emerge.”

Quintiq solutions are also used to plan and schedule the most complex production supply chains at such manufacturers as Novelis, ASML, Lafarge, AkzoNobel, and ArcelorMittal. They also plan and optimize some of the most complex logistics operations, including DHL, Walmart, DB Schenker and TNT. Quintiq is enabling full operations planning at Brussels Airport, KLM, Canadian National and the Federal Aviation Administration. Quintiq is differentiated by leading optimization technology; a platform approach to covering long-term strategic to day-of-operational planning; and capabilities which go beyond supply chain to encompass full operations planning and optimization.

“The Quintiq team is excited and proud to join Dassault Systèmes,” said Dr. Victor Allis, Co-founder and CEO of Quintiq. “Quintiq brings record-breaking decision support and optimization technology to the most complex global business planning challenges.  Now, in combination with Dassault Systèmes’ leadership in the Experience Economy, we will bring our customers new levels of innovation, operational efficiency and performance.”

“As one of the leading producers of premium steel in Europe, maximizing efficiency across facilities and meeting high delivery performance expectations of customers is core to our business model at ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe. For nearly a decade, Quintiq has been a trusted partner and our chosen supplier for operations planning and optimization,” said Sudhakar Sivaji, Head of Corporate Planning, Strategy, Markets & Development, ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe. “We hope Quintiq, together with Dassault Systèmes, will be a complete solutions provider in the business operations market and we look forward to the innovations that will follow.”

Quintiq will expand Dassault Systèmes’ DELMIA brand, adding the new product line of Operations Planning and Optimization to the existing ones of Digital Manufacturing and Manufacturing Operations Management. Quintiq provides a new reach into industries such as metals, mining, oil & gas, rail, delivery and freight.

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PTC announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Axeda, an Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud-based technology provider offering technology that connects machines and sensors to the cloud, for a reported $170 million in cash. The announcement follows the acquisition of IoT applications provider ThingWorx in December. Bob Ferarri

PTC to Acquire Axeda to Expand Internet of Things Technology Portfolio
PTC announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Axeda Corporation, a pioneer in the development of solutions to securely connect machines and sensors to the cloud, for approximately $170 million in cash. Axeda’s technology innovation, extensive customer base, and powerful partnerships directly complement the PTC ThingWorx business, and will accelerate PTC’s ability to deliver best-in-class solutions across the entire Internet of Things technology stack. Subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions and certain regulatory approvals, the transaction is expected to be completed in PTC’s fiscal Q4 2014.

Secure connectivity, and the ability to leverage machine data to create new business value, are critical components of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology stack and are in increasing demand as more companies pursue a smart, connected product strategy. An innovator in the IoT technology market, Axeda currently serves more than 150 customers, processing hundreds of millions of machine messages daily across multiple industry sectors. The company has a broad partner ecosystem that includes leading mobile network operators, edge device and design-in device makers, systems integrators, and business systems/analytics providers and its technology leadership led to several strategic OEM agreements with leading IoT technology and solution providers.

“The world we live in is changing around us, and the pace of that change is accelerating as more and more machines, sensors, and products connect via the Internet to their makers, to their operators, and to each other,” said PTC president and CEO Jim Heppelmann. “In recent years, products have become tremendous sources of intelligence as they have been increasingly instrumented with sensors. Until now, manufacturers have been constrained in their ability to securely collect that data and make sense of it all. Axeda’s innovative approach to machine connectivity delivers exactly what manufacturers need to capitalize on the massive amounts of data now available from their smart, connected products.”

Core to Axeda’s IoT technology is the ability to enable companies to establish secure connectivity and remotely monitor and manage a wide range of machines, sensors, and devices. The Axeda Machine Cloud Service includes machine-to-machine (M2M) and IoT connectivity services, software agents, and toolkits that enable companies to connect their products to the cloud using virtually any communication channel (e.g. cellular networks, the Internet, WiFi, or satellite). Axeda’s end-to-end security strategy covers all levels of the IoT technology stack, including network, application, user, and data security. Axeda has attained ISO 27001:2005 certification, supporting the company’s focus on delivering the highest levels of security, performance, and availability.

In addition, the Axeda Connected Machine Management application set empowers companies to remotely monitor and service products, including the ability to deliver over-the-air software updates.

“Axeda was early to see the potential of the IoT space and we consider ourselves a true market innovator,” said Todd DeSisto, president and CEO, Axeda. “Our technology solutions enable companies to connect to, and manage machines and the data they generate to create new business opportunities. We share PTC’s vision for the transformative power of smart, connected products and are excited to contribute to PTC’s leadership position in this fast growing market.”

In the IoT era, PTC’s customers are developing increasingly smart and connected products which can generate value in new ways as streams of real-time operational data are captured, analyzed, and shared to deepen a company’s understanding of its products’ performance, use, and reliability. PTC intends to leverage the Axeda technology portfolio to complement its existing ThingWorx® rapid application development platform and its existing service lifecycle management (SLM) and extended product lifecycle management (PLM) solution portfolio.

“In less than a year, PTC has quickly scaled to a position of leadership in helping manufacturers seize the opportunity presented by a smart, connected world,” concluded Heppelmann. “We believe the combination of ThingWorx, Axeda and our existing SLM and PLM solution portfolio, will establish PTC as the only provider of true closed-loop lifecycle management solutions for the Internet of Things.”

The acquisition is expected to add $25 million to $30 million of revenue in FY’15. PTC expects to draw on its credit facility to finance the transaction. Axeda has approximately 160 employees primarily located in the United States.

Related: Internet of Things