It’s a case of Déjà vu. On October 23, 2019, PTC announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Onshape, authors of the cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) computer aided design (CAD) product for approximately $470 million, net of cash acquired. Onshape was founded in 2012 by CAD leaders Jon Hirschtick, John McEleney, and Dave Corcoran, inventors and former executives of SolidWorks. The industry remembers very well the dynamic entry of SolidWorks in 1993, led by Jon Hirschtick, with their Windows-based CAD solid modeling solution, only to be later acquired by Dassault Systèmes in 1997.
In the announcement, Jim Heppelmann, president and CEO, PTC, stated “PTC has earned a reputation for successfully pursuing new innovations that drive corporate growth. Building on the strong momentum we have with our on-premises CAD and PLM businesses, we look to our future and see a new growth play with SaaS.” PTC reports that Onshape will operate as a business unit within the company, with current management reporting directly to Jim Heppelmann. CIMdata recognizes the future importance of cloud-based software and sees this acquisition as a positive for PTC. Current Onshape clients will see a broad offering of additional software solutions they could leverage from PTC’s portfolio. PTC itself will gain entry into a sizable number of forward-looking companies who are leading their peers into the world of innovative new cloud technology. The industry will continue to closely follow these developments as Onshape technology goes to market side-by-side with PTC’s flagship solution, Creo. Whether the Onshape leadership stays with PTC or moves on at some point to found yet another software solution will be debated among industry watchers for some time.