AECCafe Today Archive for July, 2010Comment on the building industryTuesday, July 27th, 2010“The whole [building] industry has been reminded that we’re actually driven by the credit markets, no matter what else we want to say, the banks determine how well architecture is doing. As long as credit is tight the big buildings don’t get built. We still see tight credit markets and that’s keeping the architecture side conservative.” –Sean Flaherty, CEO, Nemetschek New iPhone app for construction site clean up releasedWednesday, July 21st, 2010SmartBuilder Software in Ireland has just launched an iPhone application for construction professionals called “Site Clean Up” which sends warning notices to sub-contractors to cleaning up the site by a certain date. Architecture 2030 named one of top three most effective orgs in green building design…Thursday, July 15th, 2010The annual Design Futures Council “2010 Sustainable Design Survey” of 240 design industry leaders in the U.S. ranked Architecture 2030 among the top three most effective organizations forwarding green building design and construction in the U.S. Intergraph to be acquired by Hexagon ABTuesday, July 13th, 2010The recent announcement that Intergraph has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Hexagon AB, raised questions among the media. Hexagon AB is a global measurement technology company, and the transaction is valued at approximately $2.125 billion. According to the press release, “Upon closing of the transaction, Intergraph will operate as a separate Hexagon division under the Intergraph name and branding. Intergraph will become Hexagon’s core software platform and will continue to provide differentiated and vertically-focused software solutions to its core industries. Intergraph software will also be integrated into Hexagon’s existing measurement and precision technology system markets to provide a visual presentation layer for the management, analysis and sharing of the vast amounts of critical data produced by these products.” Intergraph customers are assured that “upon closing of the transaction, Intergraph will operate as a separate Hexagon division under the Intergraph name and branding. Intergraph will become Hexagon’s core software platform and will continue to provide differentiated and vertically-focused software solutions to its core industries. Intergraph software will also be integrated into Hexagon’s existing measurement and precision technology system markets to provide a visual presentation layer for the management, analysis and sharing of the vast amounts of critical data produced by these products.” One question that arose among those of us who have followed Intergraph since the days when Bentley Systems was owned by Intergraph, is: does Intergraph still own 30 percenet of Bentley Systems, and if so, how is Bentley affected by the recent news of this acquisition? Chris Barron, vice president of corporate marketing for Bentley, responded: “As a privately held company, Bentley does not routinely report on the identity of its minority stockholders or the stockholders or the size of their holdings. However, in response to your question, we can advise you that the Bentley shares previously held by Intergraph were transferred to an affiliate of its private equity owners following its going private transaction in 2006 and we have no indications that those shares are part of the sale to Hexagon.” In 2006, Intergraph was acquired by an investor group led by Hellman & Friedman LLC, TPG Capital and JMI Equity. Pending regulatory approvals, as well as satisfaction of other customary closing conditions, the transaction is expected to be completed in the third or fourth quarter of 2010.
Incidentally, Hexagon AB is also the parent company for ERDAS, Inc., a company that focuses on incorporating geospatial information into businesses’ existing systems and data. ERDAS states that they do not see any change in business as a result of the Intergraph acquisition for the immediate future.
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