The massive deal capped off a turbulent period for the pioneer of parametric CAD. That and more engineering software news.
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The engineering software industry is no stranger to multi-billion dollar acquisitions, but the latest is among the multi-billion-est of them all: Last week Schneider Electric agreed to acquire PTC for $22.6 billion.
This was surprising news, but not shocking. If you’ve been paying attention to PTC over the last few years, it’s shown every sign of a company in flux.
Take the company’s annual user conference, PTC LiveWorx, which died and/or stopped working (take your pick of pun) after 2023. Perhaps it was post-pandemic economics, though PTC’s three main CAD competitors all kept their annual events up and running (Autodesk University, Siemens Realize Live, and Dassault Systèmes’ 3DExperience World). Or perhaps it was because that year PTC switched leadership from longtime CEO Jim Heppelmann to newcomer Neil Barua, who had been the CEO of ServiceMax when it was acquired by PTC just months earlier (watch out, Schneider Electric CEO Olivier Blum).
There were other portents of change. PTC’s relationship with Rockwell Automation, emphatic in 2018, had diminished by 2023 with Rockwell selling more than half of its PTC shares. And don’t forget last summer, when the industrial software world briefly buzzed with the rumor that Autodesk was considering a $20 billion PTC takeover (true or not, Autodesk quickly made clear that no such deal was coming). Months later, PTC announced that it had sold its IoT and industrial connectivity brands, ThingWorx and Kepware—once central pillars of its strategy—to asset management firm TPG.
And now comes the biggest change yet for the pioneer of parametric CAD.
PTC retains a strong portfolio of computer-aided design software, including Creo and Onshape, plus mature software for product lifecycle management (PLM), application lifecycle management (ALM), and service lifecycle management (SLM). Schneider Electric believes this portfolio will allow the combined company to “create a unique digital thread for the next generation of industrial AI, helping customers to optimize their systems with greater intelligence from design and build to operate and maintain,” according to Schneider CEO Olivier Blum in the announcement.
The companies expect the acquisition to close by Q3 2027, and until then we won’t know how current PTC software users will be impacted. PTC declined to discuss the acquisition, though a representative emailed me this statement: “Together with Schneider Electric, we are creating the industry’s most complete and highest-quality portfolio bridging the physical and digital worlds. We look forward to the journey ahead and to realizing the potential of what our companies can accomplish together.”
For full details, read Schneider Electric to acquire PTC in $22.6B deal by Engineering.com senior editor Michael Ouellette.
Quick hits
- In other acquisition news, Hexagon has agreed to buy Rocscience, a developer of geotechnical and engineering analysis software, for $535 million.
- 3D scanning company Artec 3D has launched Artec Twins, a platform for processing and rendering large-scale environments.
- BIM developer Graphisoft has introduced its 2026 design portfolio, including the latest version of Archicad, which includes a dark mode for Windows, several planned AI capabilities (including an MCP server), and a new top tier subscription plan, Archicad Max. In related news, Maxon has announced Redshift 2027.0 for Architects which adds official support for Graphisoft Archicad in addition to existing integrations with Autodesk Revit and Vectorworks.
One last link
AI in PLM: Near-term expectations and challenges by CIMdata’s Peter Bilello for Engineering.com.
Got news, tips, comments, or complaints? Reach me at [email protected].
