Status of MSC / Patran

[GBor]

Anyone know anything more about the acquisition of MSC Nastran by some venture capitalists and what the fall-out may be with regards to future development?

 

[ThomasH]

Seems like I missed something?

Isn't MSC.Nastran owned MSC.Software and therefore "owned" on the NASDAQ stock exchange?

Regards

Thomas

 

[Onda]

From

http://www.6dof.com/

SANTA ANA, Calif. - July 7, 2009 - MSC.Software (Nasdaq: MSCS), a leading global provider of simulation software and services, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with affiliates of Symphony Technology Group (STG) under which a company controlled by STG will acquire all of MSC's outstanding shares in a one-step cash merger transaction valued at approximately $360 million. Under the terms of the agreement, MSC's stockholders will receive $7.63 in cash for each share of MSC common stock. This price per share represents approximately a 13% premium to the closing price per share of MSC's stock prior to this announcement and approximately a 24% premium compared to the 90 trading-day trailing closing average price per share.

 

[johnhors]

MSC sent am email to all their customers announcing this buy out by STG.

I have also heard that the new CEO had adopted a "back to basics" policy, increasing support for "core" products like Patran. Where does this leave SimXpert (the Patran replacement) and all the other Sim stuff? , which is heavily featured on their website, but I don't know of a single user!

If I was cynical, I would guess that STG will milk the cash-cow of the large number of Patran/Nastran users for their license fees and quit development of the new stuff. If true this could make STG a substantial sum for some years until the user base declined to a level at which it becomes too uneconomic to continue..... just speculation!

http://www.Roshaz.com

 

[ThomasH]

Hi again.

To answer my own question: Yep, I missed it completely.

As for what it means, I don't know. Venture capitalists usually don't think long term. I can only hope that it works out for all the MSC.Nastran users out there.

Regards

Thomas

 

[GregLocock]

Buy and flick (basic VC strategy) only works if the underlying business is still perceived as having value. Therefore there is little point in them destroying the fundamental business (ie Nastran itself).

Personally I have never trusted these integrated products, while it might seem a great idea to lock your customers into a web of interlocked products, neither FEA or MBD can really be automated enough that models can be rerun without a human powered rebuild.

So what I'd like to see MSC do is make Patran usable, and continue to develop the other vertically integrated products. Simwossisname works for demos, not for real projects. (signed bitter and twisted IDEAS sufferer - I've seen it sold into two different companies as this thing where all the CAE would update after a model revision at the press of a button, what a joke).





Cheers

Greg Locock

SIGlease see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[gwolf2]

> If I was cynical, I would guess that STG will milk the cash-cow of the large number of Patran/Nastran users for their license fees and quit development of the new stuff.

That's more or less what MSC did to Patran once they bought out PDA in the early 90's.

STG could start out by removing a load of the buggy and pointless functionality which in recent years has replaced a lot of stuff which was never broken in the first place. The new contouring stuff was clearly written by a complete ****wit!

gwolf

 

[johnhors]

some media comments on this:-

http://www.footnoted.org/urge-to-merge/mscs-long-road-to-ma/

http://www.Roshaz.com

 

[Jordonlaw]

One satisfied customer here :-

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS130302+17-Aug-2009+GNW20090817

Check out videos of the blade in action, very impressive.

Mind you, when I was demo'd SimExpert it wasn't well enough developed for my application.