PTC reported Dec. 14 that it's agreed to acquire Arena Solutions Inc. for $715 million in cash. Arena supplies product lifecycle management (PLM) platforms via software as a service (SaaS). The acquisition is expected to help PTC lead the growing market for SaaS-based product development software, and deliver a complete CAD+PLM SaaS solution. The purchase is expected to be completed in PTC’s fiscal 2Q21.
"A year ago, PTC entered the SaaS world for product development software with our acquisition of Onshape,” says Jim Heppelmann, president and CEO of PTC. “That move reflected our strong conviction that our market is nearing a tipping point in its willingness to adopt SaaS technology, following the trend seen in many other software markets. The effects of COVID-19 have dramatically accelerated this inevitable shift, with PTC customer surveys indicating a 25% increase in readiness for SaaS PLM since the pandemic started. We expect the acquisition of Arena will significantly extend our leadership position as we continue to redefine the future of our industry.”
Arena presently serves more than 1,200 customers across the electronics, high-tech and medical-device industries. Arena's product realization platform unifies PLM, quality management and requirements management, allowing every participant throughout the product design and manufacturing process, as well as across an extended supply chain, to work together in a secure, high availability cloud environment. As a result, it's expected to extend PTC’s presence in the attractive mid-market, where SaaS solutions are becoming standard.
“As the SaaS PLM pioneer, we were first to see that engineers and product developers would benefit from a new paradigm in the way they collaborate and drive product innovation,” explains Craig Livingston, president and CEO of Arena. “We were ahead of the market in the early days, but in the past several years, we’ve seen an acceleration of market receptivity and demand. This acquisition validates our original vision, and we're pleased to be joining an established leader in CAD and PLM capable of hastening the movement of our market to SaaS.”
