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Parametric Technology Corporation

 
Parametric Technology Corporation

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Parametric Technology Corporation



 
 
Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) provides Product Lifecycle Management
Product lifecycle management

Product lifecycle management is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal....
 (PLM) engineering CAD/CAM
Cam

A cam is a projecting part of a rotating wheel or shaft that strikes a lever at one or more points on its circular path. The cam can be a simple tooth, as is used to deliver pulses of power to a steam hammer, for example, or an Eccentric disc or other shape that produces a smooth reciprocating motion in the follower which is a lever...
 software and content management and dynamic publishing solutions to more than 50,000 companies worldwide. PTC customers include companies in manufacturing, publishing, services, government and life sciences industries. PTC was a member of the S&P 500
S&P 500

The S&P 500 is a market value-weighted index published since 1957 of the prices of 500 market capitalization common stocks actively traded in the United States....
 Index through the end of 2006, when it instead became listed in the S&P Midcap 400.






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Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) provides Product Lifecycle Management
Product lifecycle management

Product lifecycle management is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal....
 (PLM) engineering CAD/CAM
Cam

A cam is a projecting part of a rotating wheel or shaft that strikes a lever at one or more points on its circular path. The cam can be a simple tooth, as is used to deliver pulses of power to a steam hammer, for example, or an Eccentric disc or other shape that produces a smooth reciprocating motion in the follower which is a lever...
 software and content management and dynamic publishing solutions to more than 50,000 companies worldwide. PTC customers include companies in manufacturing, publishing, services, government and life sciences industries. PTC was a member of the S&P 500
S&P 500

The S&P 500 is a market value-weighted index published since 1957 of the prices of 500 market capitalization common stocks actively traded in the United States....
 Index through the end of 2006, when it instead became listed in the S&P Midcap 400. It is also in the Russell 2000 index.

Portfolio

PTC has six core product families – Pro/ENGINEER
Pro/ENGINEER

Pro/ENGINEER is a parametric, integrated 3D computer-aided design/CAM/CAE solution created by Parametric Technology Corporation . It was the first, parametric feature based modeler solid modeling software on the market....
, Windchill
Windchill (software)

Windchill is an integrated suite of Product Lifecycle Management applications from Parametric Technology Corporation . In late 2008, PTC announced that Windchill had over 600,000 active maintenance paying seats....
, Arbortext
Arbortext

Arbortext is an XML-based publishing system available from Parametric Technology Corporation. Arbortext was also the name of the privately-held company in Ann Arbor, Michigan that developed and maintained the software from 1989 to 2005....
, Mathcad
MathCad

Mathcad is desktop software for performing and documenting engineering and scientific calculations. First introduced in 1986 on MS-DOS, it was the first to introduce live editing of typeset mathematical notation, combined with its automatic computation....
, ProductView, and CoCreate
CoCreate

CoCreate is Computer-Aided Design and Product Data Management software.CoCreate products, 2D CAD, 3D CAD, and PDM were first developed by the Hewlett-Packard Mechanical Design Division in the mid-80s and early-90s....
.

What began as hardware independence for Pro/ENGINEER led to an ongoing commitment to interoperability and open standards for all PTC products. PTC became the first to release a pure Internet architecture solution for product data management and collaboration with Windchill. Today, PTC positions their six core product families into one suite that they call the Product Development System.

History

PTC was founded in 1985, by Samuel Peisakhovich Geisberg, who previously worked at Prime Computer
Prime Computer

Prime Computer was a Natick, Massachusetts-based producer of minicomputers from 1972 until 1992. The alternative spellings "PR1ME" and "PR1ME Computer" were used as brand names or logos by the company....
, Computervision
Computervision

Computervision, Inc. was an early pioneer in turnkey Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing company. Computervision was founded in 1969 by Marty Allen and Philippe Villers, and headquartered in Massachusetts, USA....
 (CV) and Applicon
Applicon

Applicon, Incorporated was one of the first vendors of Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing systems. It was founded in 1969 in Bedford, Massachusetts....
. Pro/ENGINEER
Pro/ENGINEER

Pro/ENGINEER is a parametric, integrated 3D computer-aided design/CAM/CAE solution created by Parametric Technology Corporation . It was the first, parametric feature based modeler solid modeling software on the market....
 (a.k.a. Pro/E), the company's first product, shipped in 1988. John Deere
Deere & Company

Deere & Company is an United States corporation based in Moline, Illinois, and the leading manufacturer of agricultural machinery in the world....
 became PTC's first customer.

Once an initial version of Pro/ENGINEER was developed, the company received venture capital funding from Charles River Associates and Steve Walske became the CEO. Pro/ENGINEER was the first commercially successful parametric feature based solid modeler
Solid modeling

Solid modeling is the unambiguous representation of the solid parts of an object, that is, models of solid objects suitable for computer processing....
. Through a combination of innovative technology, and no-holds-barred sales tactics, PTC quickly became a major force in the CAD industry. Its strong ascent continued unabated until the mid-1990s, when the introduction of Microsoft
Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is a multinational corporation computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of computer software products for computing devices....
 Windows NT
Windows NT

Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. It was originally designed to be a powerful high-level-language-based, processor-independent, multiprocessing, multiuser operating system with features comparable to Unix....
, and the availability of commercial geometric modeling
Geometric modeling kernel

A geometric modeling kernel is a 3D solid modeling software component used in computer-aided design packages.Examples include Romulus , Parasolid, ACIS, and ....
 libraries opened the door to a new generation of low-cost competitors. These competitors, symbolized by Solidworks, squeezed PTC from the bottom, while more established companies like Unigraphics and IBM held the 'high ground' in automotive and aerospace industries. PTC's sales began a multi-year decline from which it took years to recover. It took a new CAD product (Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire) and an expanded product line, but PTC has been able to transform itself over the past 10 years into the third largest provider of Product Lifecycle Management Software .

On December 29, 2006 Standard & Poor's
Standard & Poor's

Standard & Poor's is a division of McGraw-Hill that publishes financial research and analysison stocks and Bond . It is well known for its US-based S&P 500, the Australian S&P/ASX 200 stock market index, the Canadian S&P/TSX Composite, the Italian S&P/MIB and India's S&P CNX Nifty....
 bumped PTC off its S&P 500
S&P 500

The S&P 500 is a market value-weighted index published since 1957 of the prices of 500 market capitalization common stocks actively traded in the United States....
 Index, and replaced it instead with the newly spun-off natural gas company Spectra Energy
Spectra Energy

Spectra Energy Corp is a S&P 500 company headquartered in Houston, Texas, that operates in three key areas of the natural gas industry: transmission and storage, distribution, and gathering and processing....
 Corp. . Parametric then bumped Pier 1 Imports
Pier 1 Imports

Pier 1 Imports Inc. is a Fort Worth, Texas, Texas-based retailer specializing in imported home furnishings and decor, particularly furniture, table-top items, decorative accessories and seasonal decor....
 Inc. , a retailer of home furnishings, down one spot and off the bottom of the S&P MidCap 400 Index. In 2008, PTC was able to once again achieve revenues of over $1 billion. Something it had not been able to accomplish since 1999.

Companies acquired by PTC

  • Computervision
    Computervision

    Computervision, Inc. was an early pioneer in turnkey Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing company. Computervision was founded in 1969 by Marty Allen and Philippe Villers, and headquartered in Massachusetts, USA....
    , developers of CADDS in 1998
  • Polyplan, Technologies acquired 2005 for Manufacturing Process Management
  • Arbortext
    Arbortext

    Arbortext is an XML-based publishing system available from Parametric Technology Corporation. Arbortext was also the name of the privately-held company in Ann Arbor, Michigan that developed and maintained the software from 1989 to 2005....
    , developers of Arbortext
    Arbortext

    Arbortext is an XML-based publishing system available from Parametric Technology Corporation. Arbortext was also the name of the privately-held company in Ann Arbor, Michigan that developed and maintained the software from 1989 to 2005....
     in 2005 for $190 million
  • Mathsoft
    Mathsoft

    MathSoft was founded in 1984 by Allen Razdow to provide mathematical programs to students, teachers, and professionals. The company became most famous for its Mathcad software, a powerful application for solving and visualizing mathematical problems....
    , developers of Mathcad
    MathCad

    Mathcad is desktop software for performing and documenting engineering and scientific calculations. First introduced in 1986 on MS-DOS, it was the first to introduce live editing of typeset mathematical notation, combined with its automatic computation....
     in April 2006 for $63 million.
  • ITEDO Software GmbH in October 2006 for $17million. ITEDO makes technical drawing software and had 34 employees mainly in Germany and the United States.
  • NC Graphics
    NC Graphics

    NC Graphics was founded by Arthur Flutter in Waterbeach, Cambridge, England in 1977 after completing a PhD in Computer Aided Design at the AVEVA....
     in May 2007 for an undisclosed sum.
  • CoCreate
    CoCreate

    CoCreate is Computer-Aided Design and Product Data Management software.CoCreate products, 2D CAD, 3D CAD, and PDM were first developed by the Hewlett-Packard Mechanical Design Division in the mid-80s and early-90s....
     in December 2007 for $250 million.


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