UGS was not independent. They were owned by 3 private equity firms who are turning a $1.45B gain in less than 3 years. They said from the beginning that they would either sell UGS or do an IPO on it. I was hoping for the IPO route so I could do another more than double on an investment like I did the last time UGS was openly traded.
"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
So maybe "independent" wasn't the right term. Still, private investment firms have less concern in product direction and development as long as their investments pay off. I don't think the same can be said for an entity such as Seimens, and UGS will not be as "independent" in that regard.
I doubt that Siemens will do anything drastic. They are probably just wanting to get their hands on some technology that benefits them or make a large profit, then they will do the same as the previous owners....sell it off. I would be very surprised if we end up noticing the change on our end. As long as UGS is making a profit, there shouldn't be anything too drastic happen.
UGS has been bought and sold a number of times over the years and they're still around today.
In my opinion, we've felt greater impact from the I-DEAS acquisition than we ever have from the sale of UGS in the past.
John, do you have any idea of what the immediate/future impact will be regarding the development of NX and Solid Edge? Will they put Solid Edge on a shelf, sort of, like EDS did past then?
I'm not sure what you're referring to with respect to EDS and Solid Edge, however, we're now in a 'quiet period' and all employees (of BOTH UGS and Siemens) have been directed, except of course for those few at corporate who's job it is to officially interface with the 'public', to refrain from discussing or speculating on any future changes or actions that may or may not come about as a result of this announced acquistion.
That being said, based on what we've heard so far, I think that all of you can relax, and that includes BOTH you, our customers, AND the employees of the two companies, but not our competitors, of course ;-)
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Product Line
UGS Corp
Cypress, CA
john, kind of a side note and I am not sure if you can expand on this.
What's the chance of General Motors ever switching systems?
I know it would be hell with data in one system and another. But I am just curious as to where NX will be in the Automotive sector, in the future as I know nothing would happen now, but in 5-10 years maybe?
As a lot of the Automotive Manufacturers plan to switch to V5, it looks like General Motors is the only one left in NX. Unless I am hearing things different.
As for your first question, are you familiar with the term "Fat Chance"? ;-)
But in all seriousness, please do NOT believe everything that IBM and/or Dassault might like you to think. When you look around the world at all of the companies involved in one fashion or another with the automotive industry, from the various tiered suppliers up through the OEM's, we have a fair share of the business. Besides, there is more in our playbook than just CAD. If you look at the footpint that UGS has in the Automative segment with not only NX, but also such products as Teamcenter and Technomatics, it doesn't look at all that it's being dominated by IBM/Dassault.
If you'd like to learn a little more about what UGS is doing in the Automotive space there are several items here that may be of interest: