Ansys acquires Esterel Technologies for $53 million

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Ansys, a simulation service provider, has signed an agreement to acquire France-based Esterel Technologies SA for about $53 million in cash. Esterel is an embedded software simulation tools provider for mission critical applications.

As per Ansys, the deal is expected to close in the third quarter. The deal also calls for retention provisions for key members of Esterel's management and employees. Esterel which is headquartered in Elancourt, France, has about 80 employees and reported revenues of approximately 15 million euro (about $18.7 million) for fiscal year 2011.

The SCADE software by Esterel enables software and systems engineers to design, simulate and produce embedded software. Its software is used in various industry verticals like aerospace, defense, rail transportation, automotive, industrial systems and nuclear plants.

"Today's products are getting smarter. They have more electronics and software and this requires a systems engineering approach to product development. The combination of these two great companies will uniquely enable customers to comprehensively simulate complete systems and predict with confidence that their products will thrive in the real world,” said Jim Cashman, president and CEO of Ansys.

Ansys is aimimg at encompassing both hardware and software systems and at this point of time, the company is expecting that this acquisition, the company will be able to complement its software tools. Last year, the company had acquired EDA vendor Apache Design Solutions for $310 million in cash.