Agile Software Corp.'s acquisition of Cimmetry Systems Inc. will enable Agile to incorporate visual collaboration directly into its product lifecycle management (PLM) suite, while giving Cimmetry the latitude to continue selling its software to other PLM vendors, according to analysis from CIMdata Inc.
Privately-held Cimmetry, which was acquired for approximately $41.5 million in cash, has reseller/partner relationships with many of Agile's direct competitors. John MacKrell, senior analyst at CIMdata, said in an interview that Agile does not want to harm Cimmetry's established partner relationships. "Agile has stated that Cimmetry will continue to be offered independently so other companies can continue to use the technology," he said. "Agile says it doesn't want to use Cimmetry as a competitive tool. I agree. Trying to gain some competitive leverage over some of its competitors -- many of which are also Cimmetry's partners -- will not work."
Paul Giaconia, vice president of corporate strategy at Agile, said in an interview that Cimmetry would be run as a separate business with a dedicated sales force handling its stand-alone products. "We want to maintain Cimmetry as an independent business model so it can continue to innovate and deliver tools to other PLM providers," he said "We don't want the relationships that Cimmetry has with its partners to change. We want to find ways to strengthen those relationships."
While Cimmetry's growth could be invigorated by Agile's market presence, sales force and financial resources, Agile will benefit by further leveraging Cimmetry's strong set of channel partners, according to CIMdata's analysis. Maintaining Cimmetry's independence, however, will be a hurdle for Agile. "One of Agile's early challenges will be to demonstrate their commitment to maintaining Cimmetry's relationships with its current partners, especially those partners that are direct competitors of Agile," the CIMdata analysis noted. "As with all acquisitions, the proof is in the execution."
Cimmetry's technology has been offered for some time as an add-on to Agile's PLM software. Acquiring the company with whom it has had a 10-year relationship enables Agile to package the software as part of its suite, or to offer it as a stand-alone component through Cimmetry and its partners. With Cimmetry's technology as part of its PLM offering, Agile's customers will better able to track and manage all of the information related to a product, according to Agile. "In addition to the broad trend towards outsourced design and manufacturing, most new products include electronic and mechanical content," said Bryan Stolle, CEO, Agile, in a statement. "Manufacturers want to ensure that their product record represents the complete product, which has become increasingly difficult because of issues around synchronizing data generated by proprietary MCAD and EDA applications. Cimmetry is a leader in providing data format-agnostic collaborative visualization solutions, and their products have gained widespread acceptance across multiple industries as evidenced by their broad customer base."
Founded in 1988, Cimmetry has more than 9,500 customers across several industries, including manufacturing, electronics, architectural/design/construction and industrial markets. Agile has 1,200 customers in the automotive, aerospace and defense, consumer products, electronics, high tech, industrial products and life sciences.