I’m interested in a statement about the path forward with the aquisition of Ansys by Synopsis -- now Code V and OpticStudio will be owned by the same company. What can users expect?
Userlevel 7
+3
You should NOT expect a quick reply
Userlevel 3
Together Zemax and CodeV must have at least 90% market share. Seems like an anti-competitive situation that the FTC might be interested in? I wonder if NASA, or the big defense contractors, or the semi industry, will complain to the FTC about this. These codes are critical to their business.
Userlevel 1
There is so much to digest here. Both ANSYS and Synopsis have SW portfolios that contain hundreds of items. The few optics related SW programs we are talking about number in the single digits. The various public stmts and investor docs make clear that the emphasis is on the “monster markets” involved with silicon design and all the connective SW programs that enable systems design of products. We in optics, are a still bit of a niche SW product. Let’s see what the future brings.
Userlevel 3
+4
Those familiar with NASTRAN will recall that it has a complex history (see link). With the impact that FEA has on government operations (e.g. military, construction, transportation, energy, ...), the near monopoly that MSC NASTRAN had on simulation caused the code to be disseminated to a competitor - hence the rise of NX NASTRAN vs. MSC NASTRAN near the turn of the century.
It is pretty clear that the market for optical simulation is much smaller than FEA for mechanical analysis.
Nonetheless, this acquisition should catch the eye of the DoD and the DOE. However, I have no idea what they’ll actually do about the situation.
What the transfers of RSoft / CodeV to Synopsis and Lumerical / Zemax to (eventually) Ansys demonstrated to me is that the software simulation business looks similar to the optics manufacturing business. When a single person starts a software company, they eventually liquidate and sell it to a big company so they can retire.
I’ll admit there are differences, like you can’t grow an optics software business to the size of a major optics manufacturer and the overall market is much smaller for software than “glass”. However, the principle remains the same. After working for over 100 companies in my lifetime, very few are sustained as family businesses. Most are turned over as acquisitions.
I can’t recall the last merger that has resulted in better service / price / performance for the customer. While I’ve heard the promises that a bigger company results in more great people working on better features, in practice I don’t see a lot of revolutionary improvements from acquisitions.
If I were at either Ansys or Synopsis and I was in optical simulation (ray tracing, diffraction, or wave optics), I’d be concerned about my job. Since it is not easy to run these software businesses as separate companies (that’s why they were acquired), then there is likely duplication in the workforce.
Be prepared for prices to go up and layoffs.
Userlevel 7
+3
Reply
Enter your username or e-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.
Need more help?
To Chinese users:
Do not provide any information or data that is restricted by applicable law, including by the People’s Republic of China’s Cybersecurity and Data Security Laws ( e.g., Important Data, National Core Data, etc.).
不要提供任何受适用法律，包括中华人民共和国的网络安全和数据安全法限制的信息或数据（如重要数据、国家核心数据等）。