PTC set to acquire CoCreate modelling for £250 million

PTC says the acquisition will broaden its portfolio and enable it to offer support for the most comprehensive range of modelling techniques available in the MCAD industry. The company also says it intends to integrate CoCreate’s history-free modelling systems with its own PDS (Product Development System) suite – not least so that it can offer CoCreate users additional engineering development capabilities, including calculations, publishing, visualisation, high-speed machining and enterprise content and process management. “We are constantly evaluating technologies that address the business challenges of our customers,” says Richard Harrison, president and CEO of PTC. “This acquisition is compelling as it enhances PTC’s product portfolio while also contributing to earnings and operating margin. “The satisfaction of CoCreate’s customers will be a major focus for PTC. We are committed to protecting and enhancing the investment that these customers have made in CoCreate solutions and we plan to also offer additional complementary PTC solutions in order to bring them even more value.” Following the acquisition, PTC will have just about all the accepted approaches to modelling in the business – parametric, explicit, derived and 2D. Says Jim Heppelmann, executive vice president and chief product officer of PTC: “Each modelling approach has its own advantages, and only PTC will have an objective view that allows us to map the appropriate modelling approach to a given customer situation, yet encase that modelling approach in a full product development system. “In line with industry trends, we expect the majority of our modelling business will continue to come from our flagship parametric solution, Pro/Engnieer. CoCreate customers who prefer explicit modelling will now have a complete product development system as a viable option.” German-based CoCreate has 280 employees and more than 5,000 customers globally – including Agilent, Canon, Fisher Controls, Fujitsu, HP, Liebherr, Matsushita Electric, NEC, Olympus, Phoenix Contact and Seiko Epson.