It's been a while since I've had Internet access. The area of western Ohio where I live was hit by ice storms Wednesday. Trees are down, power is out. I'm actually sitting in the food court of a local mall that offers free wireless access. My power has been out since Wednesday afternoon, except for a few hours Wednesday evening. We get snow and ice here, but never a 17" snowfall (all in one day) followed two weeks later by 2" of rain (in a 24-hour period) that froze on trees and power lines. The amazing thing is to see the patience and forebearance of all the people in town. We just all find ways to live though it. At least the temperatures are in the 30's instead of the usual teens.
Just picked up news of a couple more software company consolidations. The big national news was the final absorption of PeopleSoft into Oracle. In the manufacturing specific arena, Tecnomatix (which had just picked up USDATA) has been purchased by UGS. UGS is the EDS spinoff of its PLM business. Also in PLM, I've been told that Framework Technologies has sold out to Centric Software (http://www.centricsoftware.com)
See our news item on Framework: http://www.automationworld.com/cds_article.html?search_term=framework+technologies&boolean=exact&hc1=hc1&Submit=Go
I know that many owners of small companies dream of the quick sale with its quick profit. Having been a manager in several small companies one of which sold, I always feel a little pang of loss. Despite the good words of the owners and presidents, the small company always get absorbed and decimated. New owners are looking for a quick payoff of the purchase price. Many jobs are cut. Some work, but many don't. The winner is the VC who walks off with the cash.
Saying that, I hope for the best for these companies and their customers.
This last year witnessed much consolidation of software companies. It makes you wonder how much money can be made in that business and what the critical mass is for solid profitability. Although both GE Fanuc http://www.gefanuc.com and Rockwell Automation http://www.rockwellautomation.com have invested in software companies, posts on the Jim Pinto Weblog http://www.jimpinto.com imply that neither is seeing good returns from the businesses. These were touted as growth vehicles for hardware suppliers who have seen hardware approach commodity status. So, what's next? Services? Jim Pinto thinks services are too labor intensive to be profitable.
What do you think? Is there money in software? Services? Or must companies be restructured even further to live in a world of fewer cash cows?
12:27:15 PM 
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