Thread: Hexagon Buys Esprit

More unexpected news in the CAD/CAM industry. As an Esprit user hopefully they don't muck it up.

Hexagon acquire Esprit CAM makers, DP Technology - DEVELOP3D

Well at least autodicks didn't buy it.

Makes me glad I recently chose SolidCAM over Esprit. Fingers crossed they don't jump on the beancounter train and sell.

See what they did/not do with SurfCAM.

Chazsani

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Hexagon bought Edgecam and eliminated all the VARs, I imagine that they will do the same for esprit.

Originally Posted by Hardplates

Well at least autodicks didn't buy it.

Hexagon are every bit as bad as AD.

On the semi-plus side, I came very close to ditching Featurecam and buying Esprit last year when I was still early-stage furious about AD buying Delcam. Had I actually gone through with that and all the pain that it would have entailed I'd be scaling new heights of apoplexy right now.

Good options are getting thinner on the ground every fucking day.

Originally Posted by gregormarwick

Hexagon are every bit as bad as AD.

On the semi-plus side, I came very close to ditching Featurecam and buying Esprit last year when I was still early-stage furious about AD buying Delcam. Had I actually gone through with that and all the pain that it would have entailed I'd be scaling new heights of apoplexy right now.

Good options are getting thinner on the ground every fucking day.

Yeah..... Imagine being the idiot that has spent the last 5 months migrating everything from Featurecam to Esprit.

Couldn't be me...

Originally Posted by Camputer

Yeah..... Imagine being the idiot that has spent the last 5 months migrating everything from Featurecam to Esprit.

Couldn't be me...

Man, I'm sorry...

Ah man, well... I'll just... hope for the best.

Can someone give it to me straight? I only know Hexagon for making PC-DMIS, but now I see that they own Surfcam and Worknc too? What is their rapsheet like?

Originally Posted by Camputer

Ah man, well... I'll just... hope for the best.

Can someone give it to me straight? I only know Hexagon for making PC-DMIS, but now I see that they own Surfcam and Workcnc too? What is their rapsheet like?

Bend over and assume the position, there's going to be nothing straight about it

Sorry I couldn't help myself

For crying out loud, who next?

MasterCam? HyperMill? SurfCam?

Looks way too much like a row of dominoes............


Edit: See, SurfCam is gone already!

Originally Posted by ChipSplitter

For crying out loud, who next?

MasterCam? HyperMill? SurfCam?

Looks way too much like a row of dominoes............

Didn't we determine earlier in this thread that they already own SurfCam?

I don't know, just going by what was posted.

As long as they stay all stay away from SolidCam I'm happy. I do feel for the guys that run software that gets bought out. I can imagine it feels like getting bounced around like a $2 hooker after you paid a lot of money to buy in.

Hexagon took over what was the old Brown and Sharpe. I ran their CMMs and software.

I think that the computer industry has finally stopped wrinkling its white collar nose at machining and now they're buying up the software companies.

I'm a SmartCAM user, sort of astounded they've been able to hold on as a company over the years (even if they did go through a death and resurrection a decade-plus ago).

SmartCAM - Wikipedia

I'm expecting more consolidation.

disgusting

It was Vero (run by venture capital) that bought EdgeCAM, WorkNC & SurfCAM.
Hexagon bought Vero
Hexagon also bought NC Simul a year or so ago (in light of the Vericut and Camplete acquisitions)

To their credit,they have not dropped brands, and have shared some technology across brands.

In some ways, you have all these CAM companies that are now 20-30 years old, still privately held. The people that started them want their pay day and want to move on with the next stage of their life. I get it. That's how I see Esprit, Vericut, and others. That's definitely what happened with WorkNC.

I think HyperMILL is already owned by Man & Machine
I don't think MasterCAM will be easily acquired by anyone. They have already done their succession plan, and don't have to sell for financial reasons.

Originally Posted by jeffj

I don't think MasterCAM will be easily acquired by anyone. They have already done their succession plan, and don't have to sell for financial reasons.

Interesting. It sounds like you have some background in the field. If that's correct, any further insights would be welcome...

Originally Posted by jeffj

To their credit,they have not dropped brands, and have shared some technology across brands.

Taken at face value, the same thing can be said of Autodesk and Delcam.

I have no idea how Hexagon will behave in the CAM sector, but they have made a number of monopolistic moves in the metrology sector over the last 20 years or so, and you will find no shortage of people in that line of work who revile them.

Originally Posted by jeffj

I don't think MasterCAM will be easily acquired by anyone. They have already done their succession plan, and don't have to sell for financial reasons.

Everything is for sale for the right price. If Sandvik is going all in here, this is the play. Who else would they acquire in the CAM space that would make an impact?

Originally Posted by Milland

Interesting. It sounds like you have some background in the field. If that's correct, any further insights would be welcome...

Not a lot no.

I'm not saying MasterCAM would never sell to someone, I'm saying it'll be more difficult and the price will be higher. MasterCAM named one of the daughters President in 2015, so we don't have an original founder just wanting to retire. All the original owners have their places in Hawaii, so they probably don't need the money. If they ever sell, it'll be a big deal, at least for the CAM market.
Meghan Summers-West named president OF CNC Software Inc. - Today's Medical Developments

I was at WorkNC when they sold to Vero in 2012. A few years before hand, Bruno Marko, the owner, announced at a company gathering he planned to retire. If I remember correctly, his plan was to retire around 2010, but the recession was on, and it ended up being late 2012. After retiring he moved from France to Lichtenstein because of taxes, and bought an Aston Martin.

The SurfCAM acquisition, from my understanding, was a little more of a need to sell situation. However, from what I know, Esprit and CG Tech were still self sufficient and not hemorrhaging money. SO they probably got a good enough offer and decide to move on, just a guess though.

Originally Posted by gregormarwick

Taken at face value, the same thing can be said of Autodesk and Delcam.

I have no idea how Hexagon will behave in the CAM sector, but they have made a number of monopolistic moves in the metrology sector over the last 20 years or so, and you will find no shortage of people in that line of work who revile them.

I'm not sure. Delcam was publicly traded, if someone makes a serious offer to buy them, their board has a fiduciary responsibility to consider the offer.

Hexagon has a ton of CAM products - Visi, WorkNC, Smirt, AlphaCAM, EdgeCAM, SurfCAM, Peps, Cabinet Vision, Machining Strategist, NC Simul and still markets all of them to some degree. They have not just dropped any brand yet, though with that many products, with a fair amount of overlap, they could. Some products probably get more sharing of technology or more development than others, I don't know how they determine that mix today.

Autodesk certainly has shared technology across products from acquisitions, but they have also dropped ArtCAM, PartMaker, Delcam for Shoes, Delcam for Dental. The writing is on the wall for FeatureCAM and the SolidWorks version of HSM (just an opinion).