The ONE Tech Company program gets closer to its ultimate goal—this time, in life sciences.
Welcome to Engineering Paper. Another week, another massive Siemens acquisition.
Just after closing its $10 billion purchase of Altair, Siemens announced that it’s signed an agreement to acquire Dotmatics, a Boston-based developer of life sciences R&D software, for $5.1 billion. (Maybe there was a buy-one-get-one-half-off deal on scientific software companies.)
Siemens characterized the Dotmatics announcement as another milestone in its new ONE Tech Company growth program. I poked some fun at that last week, but maybe Siemens really is trying to form ONE Tech Company to rule them all.
So why Dotmatics? Siemens sees life sciences as complementary to its engineering software portfolio, and wants to cross pollinate its AI and digital twin solutions into a new market.
“By acquiring Dotmatics, we’re strategically strengthening our position in Life Sciences and creating a world-leading AI-powered PLM software portfolio as part of Siemens Xcelerator,” said Roland Busch, president and CEO of Siemens, in the company’s press release.
Or, in CFO speak: “The acquisition of Dotmatics drives strong revenue synergies and is highly profitable and cash generative,” said Ralf P. Thomas, Siemens’ chief financial officer.
Siemens expects the deal to close in the first half of its fiscal year 2026 (Siemens’ fiscal year starts in October), subject to customary regulatory approval.
Will this move pay off? It sure did for Dassault Systèmes. Remember when they bought Medidata, a developer of clinical trial software, for $5.8 billion in 2019? Dassault couldn’t have known that 2020 would bring a global pandemic—but the race to develop a Covid vaccine, and Medidata’s role in that effort, sure made Dassault’s investment in the life sciences company look like a stroke of genius.
Let’s hope the comparison ends here.
Hexagon closes two deals too
In other engineering software acquisition news, Hexagon announced that it’s completed its purchase of 3D Systems’ Geomagic software suite for $123 million. Geomagic applications, including Design X, Control X, Freeform and Wrap, are used for capturing and processing 3D scan data. The software will now be offered by Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division.
“The combination of Geomagic and our existing solutions will further strengthen our market leadership in 3D metrology and reengineering,” said Hexagon interim CEO Norbert Hanke in the company’s initial announcement in December 2024.
Hexagon also announced that it’s completed the acquisition of Belgium-based Septentrio NV, a manufacturer of GNSS receiver technology. That company will operate within Hexagon’s Autonomous Solutions division.
Quick hits: Updates and integrations
- SDC Verifier launched a new version of its FEA software, SDC Verifier 2025 R1. The release marks a switch to account-based licensing, replacing the former system of activation keys with a personal login. It also adds support for the latest versions of Ansys, Simcenter 3D and Femap, among other updates.
- Dassault Systèmes released Simulia Manatee 2025X R1, the latest version of its simulation software for analyzing electromagnetic noise and vibrations. The release reduces magnetic calculation time by up to 50%, has a better flux density import interface, and adds other new features, according to Dassault.
- Concepts NREC and ADS CFD have partnered to bring the latter’s GPU-accelerated CFD software to AEDS, Concepts NREC’s suite of CAE and CAM software for turbomachinery design. According to Concepts NREC, the integration will enable turbomachinery designers to run CFD simulations 15 – 120x faster than traditional solvers. (Sorry for that avalanche of acronyms, btw.)
One last link
I’m late to this April Fools’ Day joke, but if you’re in the mood for amusement read about the new Onshape desktop client from Caden Armstrong of SmartBench Software. (Don’t skip the comments.)
Got news, tips, comments, or complaints? Send them my way: malba@wtwhmedia.com.
