Dassault to Acquire ABAQUS

By DE Editors

Dassault Systèmes (Paris, France) announced on May 17 an agreementto acquire ABAQUS, Inc. (Warwick, RI) in an all-cash transactionapproximating $413 million, subject to certain adjustments at closing.ABAQUS is the established leader in nonlinear finite element analysissoftware. Dassault says it expects the planned acquisition to beimmediately accretive to net income, excluding acquisition costs andthe impact of deferred revenue accounting treatment. In a relatedannouncement, Dassault also unveiled SIMULIA, a scientific, openplatform that will enable the integration of all types of simulationapplications.

ABAQUS and Dassault will make realistic simulation accessible to awider audience and greatly increase ease of use, according to theannouncement. With this initiative, Dassault says it plans to diversifyinto markets beyond its existing manufacturing base. The ABAQUSpurchase is a significant step to reshape the large but currentlyfragmented simulation software market, in which most companies stilluse niche applications rather than unified solutions, according toDassault.
 
ABAQUS is well recognized for its technology, which is capable ofscaling from simple to the most demanding simulations. For example, asimple drop-test simulation enables users to observe the behavior ofall of the internal components of a mobile phone. Dassault will alsobenefit from ABAQUS’s intellectual capital, embodied by its world-classtechnology team including 70 PhDs.

“We warmly welcome the impressive ABAQUS team,” said Bernard Charles,president and CEO, Dassault Systèmes in the company’s announcement.Together, we will enable our customers to experience virtually whattheir customers will experience using their products in the real world.”

“I am delighted and enthused that Dassault Systèmes has selected ABAQUSas the foundation of its strategic investment in simulationtechnology,” said Mark Goldstein, president and CEO, ABAQUS. “Ascompanies continue to adopt performance-centric practices as afundamental component of product design, the role of simulation willbecome ever more important to the success of an enterprise. I lookforward to the contribution that ABAQUS technologies will bring toDassault Systèmes’ PLM ]product lifecycle management] solutions whileat the same time maintaining our focus on delivering industry-leadingadvanced finite-element solutions to the PLM market in general.”

In the SIMULIA announcement, Dassault described SIMULA as a newunified, open platform supporting all simulation domains. It proposesto accelerate innovation by supporting the capture and deployment ofbest practices for predicting product behavior, as well as reduce thecost of ownership for scientific applications. SIMULIA will also giveusers access to simulation capabilities without requiring the steeplearning curve of disparate, traditional simulation tools. SIMULIA willinclude the Dassault Component Application Architecture V5 (CAA V5)ecosystem and existing ABAQUS partners.

Dassault Systèmes estimates that the impact of deferred revenuewrite-down, as part of purchase accounting adjustments, may result in aloss of revenue of approximately $20 million within 12 months of thecompletion of the proposed acquisition of ABAQUS.

The transaction is subject to the satisfaction of certain customaryconditions and approval by certain regulatory authorities. NeitherDassault Systèmes nor ABAQUS will require a shareholder vote. DassaultSystèmes expects that the proposed acquisition could be completed bythe end of its third fiscal quarter.