I do not think the Fluent nor CFX will change buisness strategy in the short term. We all know that the codes have their pros and cons but they have their market. In long term ( from 18 month ) I think we will see the two "houses" beeing merged but still giving the best service as they can.

ALthough I am still not 100% sure of the thinking behind the purchase you can see where ansys are coming from, they are a massive company in the CAE world and buying CFX $20 million is pocket change really (especially when you look at how much they paid for fluent) perhaps CFX was the "test case" for ansys before they got what they really wanted.

We have 4 times as much CFX-licenses as FLUENT Licenses. We have FLUENT licenses, only because of dynamic meshing capabilities. And we use it on a daily basis......

Astrid

For info.

Dear Customer,

This is an exciting day for ANSYS, Inc. and, we believe, for you as an ANSYS engineering software user. We announced this morning, as part of our quarterly earnings call, our intention to acquire Fluent Inc. Fluent's impressive and complementary technologies will be a tremendous addition to the ANSYS portfolio of simulation software tools.

Fluent customers are receiving a communication from Dr. Bart Patel, Chairman and CEO, of Fluent Inc. and Dr. Ferit Boysan, President and COO, expressing their excitement about this opportunity. In asking them to convey my personal excitement to the Fluent user community, I also wanted to take this opportunity to address our loyal ANSYS customers.

The path we have been on for six years, and will continue to follow, contributes significantly to the objective of delivering a broad portfolio of best-in-class CAE simulation technology to the industry. It will bring us, and you, closer to our vision of integrating these technologies to deliver breakthrough solutions with real world fidelity. We believe this is important for the engineering simulation industry. The acquisition of Fluent reinforces our objective to deliver on the full promise of Simulation Driven Product Development, as a leading CAE software company focused exclusively on engineering simulation.

Upon closure of this acquisition, ANSYS will begin to integrate Fluent â€" functionally, geographically, technically. Of immediate benefit will be the opportunity for tighter linkages between ANSYS Workbench-based products such as ANSYS Mechanical or Multiphysics, and the Fluent code. We have been doing this with our entire product portfolio, consistent with our strategy and vision. The benefits of this strategy to our customers and the engineering simulation industry have been real and very measurable in terms of increased innovation, greater productivity and lower costs. We fully expect to offer the same benefit potential to today's Fluent user community.

Strategically, we will have two world-class CFD simulation technologies, each of which greatly complements the other in underlying physics, industry fit and user preference. As such, both codes will continue to be fully maintained and enhanced according to their respective R&D investment plans. Longer-term opportunities for technology sharing and new product initiatives from both technologies will be examined as you would expect.

It is important to note that we are in a period during which time each company will continue to operate completely independently. That is, until we consummate the transaction, both companies will operate as they have been. It is important for you to know this, and that ANSYS and Fluent will not be communicating or collaborating whatsoever during this period. We expect this process to last until early April. We appreciate your patience and thank you in advance for respecting the need for due process in these matters.

This is an exciting announcement for all of us at ANSYS. More importantly this is an exciting announcement for our customers and the engineering simulation industry in general. I sincerely hope that you share in our excitement. We look forward to the opportunity to discuss it with you firsthand. Please do not hesitate to contact your local Regional Sales Director if you have any questions.

Yours very truly,

James E. Cashman III

President and Chief Executive Officer

Rewriting (completely or partially) is the nature of Software development and will be a continuous process: CFX did it and Fluent did it as well. It all depends on how company plans it. Indeed, as a long time STAR-CD user, I have quite good inside knowledge of CD-Adapco. Their workhorse STAR-CD 3 is being rewritten with a bit of code structure changes (face-lift) to take care of poly cells more naturally: this is not as big change as CFX. The end result STAR-CD v4 is just being released. The really big change is STAR-CCM+ which is a complete different design and different code with huge emphasis on software engineering: the main developers of this code are ex-Fluent employees (they claimed they developed all the major stuff in Fluent). STAR-CCM+ is also released regularly. It seems to be a very nice one so far, producing quite good results for high-speed compressible flows.

As long as the plan is evolutionary and happens over time then this is definitely not the case.

The alternative, doing nothing, is developing several different solvers (5 I think). This makes absoultely no sense because any new model or feature must be reimplemented multiple times. For sure this will not speed up development. It's simply a waste of time and effort and is an unmaintainable strategy in the longer term.

The only question will be which solver carries ANSYS forward?

Neale.

With our combined efforts maybe we can eventually beat down the effects of Shannon on the species.

I didn't get a bike pass at Bromont last summer because of the construction. I heard many of the decent DH runs were closed as a result. Still though, an excellent riding destination, much better than anything around here.

Ben wrote: "you can see where ansys are coming from, they are a massive company in the CAE world"

Actually ansys isn't that much bigger than fluent, in terms of revenue ($158M vs $122M for fluent in 2005). That makes the purchase price ($565) seem even larger. They just bet the company on this deal.

We live in a simple world and so does ANSYS. What is it all about? Money, money, money.........

I think Ansys had two choises: Either grow trough increased marketing of the ANSYS portfoilo, or through aquisition of a competitor. The above discussion proves the difficulty of trying to get Fluent users to convert to CFX or vice versa. So buying the competitor is easier.

The real reason so most probarly to get Fluent users to use ANSYS FEM software.

"The only question will be which solver carries ANSYS forward?"

Hmmmm, maybe the one they just spent half a billion $ on ?

I bet CFX users will be migrated to Fluent's next generation code similar to when Flotran was replaced with CFX. Fluent is clearly much better at running a CFD business and will be in the driver's seat. I think the press release even said that the Fluent VP will be in charge (not the current CFX VP).

ANSYS didn't spend half a billion dollars to acquire a solver. CFX and Fluent are largely equal in capability, with each having some advantages over the other. ANSYS could close the gap for lot less money on development. They bought themselves market share. If you don't beleive it, pull out your slide rule and give yourself a good smack across the head.

If you think either solver will die anytime soon, grab that slide rule again. It may not be smart in the long term to have multiple CFD solvers, but both products are profitable with a strong customer base. You can be sure both will be around for a long time.

Guy

Interesting. So how many "new" codes is CD-Adapco developing? Don't they also have Comet and another version of Star-CD in Japan? Sounds like a product roadmap nightmare.

Guy

ANSYS may get some growth for their mechanical products through newly acquired Fluent customers, sure. But the simple fact is Fluent is making money, was likely to be IPO'd soon and ANSYS can afford to buy them. Seems like a no brainer, but hindsight is always clearer.

CFX and Fluent users should be excited.

Guy

Like FIDAP, COMET is discarded.

I thought Comet was the code behind the CAD integration. Is it CCM+ then?

Guy

STAR-CD V4 and STAR-CCM+ both have CAD integration. I think the roadmap is quite clear: STAR-CD V4 is a normal STAR-CD version and STAR-CCM+ would be the ultimate version.

As for the relation between CD-Adapco and CDAJ (Japan), it's very much like a divorced marriage with children. CDAJ contributes about 50% of CD-Adapco's revenue. CD, Adapco and CDAJ used to have inter-share holding. Around 2001, something happened - Adapco took over CD and CDAJ became an independent company. Again for some reason, a few key development staff from CD joined CDAJ and they had a court fight. I think the working relation between 2 companies are now quite good because they need each other.

What is Star's market value ? just wondered as both Fluent and CFX's have been mentioned ?

That assumes ANSYS bought Fluent for their "technology". If you think that you have been asleep for the past 5 years having an extremely vivid dream.

The CFX solver is at least 10 years ahead (when compared to Fluent's latest foray into pressure based coupled solvers) and 3 years ahead of Fluent in integrating CFX products into ANSYS.

This was only a business desision on the part of ANSYS, they did not need the technology because they already have that (i.e. CFX). As "Guy" says, ANSYS has simply purchased market share, especially in certain market segments like the automotive industry or electronics cooling, that's it.

Sorry for my ignorance - IPO'd what does this mean ?? Not herd that one ! Who are Ansys's main competitors ? how do they compare company size / revenue wise ?