Autodesk Inc. собирается купить компанию Alias
Autodesk said the acquisition would likely close within four to six months and boost the company's offerings for the design of consumer products as well as automotive, media and entertainment markets.
Customers of Toronto-based Alias, whose revenues were $83 million in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2005, include Industrial Light & Magic, DreamWorks SKG, Nintendo, General Motors and BMW.
Autodesk Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz told Reuters the deal would result in an unspecified number of job cuts but would allow the company to expand its product lines and push more strongly into areas such as character animation.
The acquisition was the company's fourth this year and Bartz said it represented the type of easily digestible deal the company seeks. She said the company typically makes between four and six acquisitions each year.
"We are always on the hunt for some really good people with some good ideas," Bartz said in a telephone interview. "There will be some layoffs because there are some synergies and there will be people doing the same thing."
The acquisition marks the second-largest in Autodesk's history following its $410 million purchase of Discreet Logic in 1999. It comes as Wall Street analysts expect further consolidation in the software media industry.
Autodesk also said the deal is expected to slightly boost earnings in fiscal 2007, excluding items such as costs for research and development and acquisition-related restructuring.
But the company said it was "unable" to estimate the future impact of the transaction according to generally accepted accounting principles, also known as GAAP. Autodesk said it has not changed any of its previous forecasts.
Shares of Autodesk, whose competitors include Parametric Technology Corp. (PMTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and Dassault Systemes (DAST.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), closed down 27 cents at $46.47 on Nasdaq on Tuesday, but rose slightly in after-hours trading following the announcement.
The company's revenue has grown in recent quarters as customers of its computer-aided design, or CAD, programs upgrade to three-dimensional versions of the software.