Daratech attributes the market health to the staggering number of innovative technologies entering the market each year. For example, PLM and asset lifecycle management technologies are still in their infancies, and solution providers will continue to acquire companies and technologies they believe give them a better opportunity to serve their customers, as well as a leg up on the competition and a way to increase their own bottom lines. The analysts also cite the quest for openness -- a capability on the forefront of everyone¡¯s minds of late. The more a provider does to make itself interoperable with its own technologies and others¡¯, the more it will reap from the ROI of its solutions.
Forecast
At the start of 2006, Daratech had forecast that the overall PLM market would grow by about 14%, to just under $12 billion. While we haven¡¯t updated this total to include results for the first half of 2006, it would appear that this forecast was on the conservative side. M&A
In the first half of 2006, several major acquisitions took place, quickly expanding an increasingly growing PLM market. An increase in the rate of consolidation among the major companies is occuring as they seek to reach new customer segments, new market verticals and to fill technology gaps. Since the beginning of the year, in chronological order, the following transactions have occurred:
- ANSYS announced that it would acquire Fluent, Inc.
- Autodesk announced its acquisition of Constructware
- Dassault Syst¨¨mes (DS) announced the acquisition of MatrixOne
- Adobe Systems. Inc. announced it had acquired TTF of France
- PTC announced the acquisition of Mathsoft
- Agile Software announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Prodika
- Open Text Corporation announced that it intends to acquire Hummingbird, Ltd.
Investors
Daratech also points to outside investments pouring into the market. The analysts say this indicates that even the "outsiders" see a big benefit of investing in PLM. Examples include:
- Primavara Systems, Inc announced that it received investments from Insight Venture Partners and Francisco Partners L.P
- Blue Ridge Numerics announced it has received a "significant infusion" of capital from the Global Environment Fund (GEF)
About the market research
Daratech's "daratech*Online - AEC & Lifecycle Management " service and corresponding "Industry Update" news bulletin offer a comprehensive source of engineering and manufacturing information technology product, vendor and industry data. daratech*Online provides web access to Daratech's expert knowledge about the PLM, CAD/CAM, CAE, AEC, Plant Design, ECO and Process Simulation markets.
