Rumours of further consolidation in the PLM market
The PLM sector has seen plenty of significant aquistions in the last couple of years. Firstly there was the takeover of the heavyweight PLM provider UGS by Siemens, which subsequently became Siemens PLM, then came the takeover of Agile by Oracle and Co-Create by PTC. These purchases illustrate the strength and perceived potential of the PLM industry as a whole, but also the need by providers to offer a complete end-to-end solution and to diversify into the market for smaller companies – an area that is seeing significant growth.
Not for the first time, PTC has now become subject to takeover speculation. Earlier this year there were rumours that PTC could be an aquisition target, the most likely suitor being touted as SAP – this, and positive sales figures, saw their share price leap from $13.68 in mid-March to more than $21 by mid-August. This month, the Financial Times announced that PTC has engaged the services of Goldman Sachs to look for potential buyers with a price tag of around $2billion. PTC are yet to comment on this speculation, and at the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference on September 9th, Kristian Talvitie, PTC’s vice-president of investor relations said “With respect to the article, things get printed on rumors all the time. I can’t comment on that. But as a public company, our shares are always for sale on the Exchange.”
Whether the rumour is true or not, it seems reasonable to assume that a takeover approach might well win board approval in light of the Boston Business Journal reporting a bonus increase for senior management should an acquistion be successful.
