Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Report: PTC hires Goldman Sachs to find a $2B buyer

By Mass High Tech Staff

Computer-aided design industry giant Parametric Technology Corp. has hired banking advisers and is approaching prospective bidders in an attempt to sell itself for more than $2 billion, the Financial Times reported, citing people with knowledge of the process.

The Needham-based PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC), which has a $2.2 billion market capitalization, has hired Goldman Sachs to drum up potential buyers following a run-up in its shares since the spring, sources close to the matter said. PTC spokeswoman Nicole Rowe said the company wouldn’t comment on the report.

Industry sources said several of Parametric’s larger competitors, as well as private equity investors, have recently received data on the company, the Financial Times reported.

PTC, founded in 1985, employs more than 4,800 workers. It’s one of New England’s most prominent technology companies and a CAD industry leader along with SolidWorks Corp. in Concord. Last year, PTC announced four acquisitions, including Sindelfingen, Germany-based CoCreate Software GmbH, a developer of product lifecycle management and computer-aided design software, for $250 million. For 2007, it reported a profit of $143.6 million on revenue of $941.2 million.

The company won a major contract in July to provide design collaboration software to EADS, the European aerospace and defense group, beating competitors Siemens and Dassault Systemes. The local CAD industry started in 1969, when industry pioneer Computervision Inc. was founded in Bedford. Three years later, Prime Computer Corp. was started in Natick, and the two companies merged in 1988, eventually adopting the Computervision name. When PTC subsequently acquired Computervision in 1997 for $490 million, it formed what became a CAD industry giant.