There has been lots of buzz around CAD and cloud lately (in the future I hope to find more time to cover this subject) but not that much discussion around the financial shape of CAD software companies.
Couple of days ago Dassault Systemes reported Q2 results for 2010 with strong EPS growth (earning per share).
EPS growth of 82% reaching €0.40 (IFRS) and 57% reaching €0.58 (Non-IFRS)
Reading these numbers it is easy to conclude that the recession that has clouded the CAD industry is over (or at least getting there). However, Vektorrum has dug deeper into the numbers and point out some interesting facts (there's tons more interesting info and graphs on their page):
Most of the rise appears due to two factors: the acquisition by Dassault Systèmes of IBM’s PLM marketing business and the 8% drop in the value of the Euro compared with the US Dollar.
According to the company’s press release, the IBM “share of DS software revenue was estimated at approximately €53 million in the second quarter of 2009.” Add this figure to Dassault’s revenue from the second quarter of 2009, and its PLM revenue rose a scant 3% year-to-year, not the robust 30% suggested by the financial statements. Dassault Systèmes’ overall revenue (in Euros) rose 6% when similarly adjusted for the IBM effect, not the 24% reported.
What about the other CAD software giants ?
Dassault Systèmes appears to be in good financial shape. But like PTC, its recovery from the recent recession is slow. Rival Autodesk appears likely to report a similarly slow turnaround when its current fiscal quarter ends.
Most important for the industry and everyone involved is that CAD field is slowly recovering and software providers have enough money on their bank accounts to concentrate on product development which makes us, CAD engineers (and GrabCAD too) happy.
