3D CAD NEWS

PTC has hired investment banking firm Goldman Sachs to seek potential buyers for the company. The stock closed today up 9% to 20.78, near its 52-week high of 21.54. The news was first reported today by the Financial Times, but then picked up by other business publications.

The higher stock price drives PTC market capitalization past the $2 billion mark. Published reports today suggest the asking price is $2 billion, but stockholders will likely want a premium above recent trading level.

PTC is coming off the second-best quarter in company history, and recently announced a blockbuster multi-year deal with EADS, the parent company of Airbus, that will over time become its largest single sale. The sale came after a long and rigorous benchmarking process that pitted PTC’s Windchill PLM software against rival products from Siemens PLM and Dassault Systemes. For details on EADS’ benchmark process, see the CADCAMNet article, “EADS Raises the Bar for PLM Benchmarking.”

In recent years PTC has been following a growth by acquisition strategy, picking up smaller technology firms with complimentary products, including Arbortext for product documentation, ITEDO for technical illustration, and CoCreate for its alternative 3D CAD software which uses an explicit approach as opposed to PTC’s Pro/ENGINEER, which pioneered parametric 3D modeling.

More details Thursday in CADCAMNet.

While I was googling the Moldflow acquisition news today, I happened across an interesting sponsor link. It reads:

Moldflow Takeover Unfair?
Are you unhappy with the proposed takeover of Moldflow Corporation?

Click on the link and it leads to Levi and korsinsky LLP, NYC based lawyers who are investigating the possibility that the MoldFlow acquisition by Autodesk might be worthy of some further investigation.

According to the Autodesk press release on May 1 2008, “Autodesk will acquire Moldflow for $22 per share, or approximately $297 million.”

According to lawyer Edward Korsinsky, some shareholders in MoldFlow have already asked the company to investigate if this is a fair offer, and the company is now seeking other shareholders that may be interested in a class action suit, if indeed its investigation proves that the offer is too low.

By way of clarification, the legal firm conducts investigations at no charge, and then negotiates a contingency fee if they feel action is appropriate. According to Korsinsky, the company is also a lead counsel in the Bear Stearns acquisition case, where the original, agreed offer was at $2 per share, later upped to $10 per share, and at this point, still unresolved. The Moldflow acquisition, by comparison, is very small beans - but it’s CAD, so we are paying attention!

Is the law firm an ‘ambulance chaser’? Maybe yes, maybe no. A couple of Moldflow shareholders alerted the company to the situation that they feel needs some observation and investigation. Korsinsky says that their service allows shareholders who feel that they are being left on the outskirts of a decision can take sensible action to ensure their rights are being heard and taken into consideration. That’s fair, right?

Thus far, the case is still in the investigative stages, but the company is poised and ready for action, if merited. Maybe it is, maybe not. We will attempt to keep you informed.

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