Altair Engineering to Acquire Mecalog Group and its RADIOSS Technology Suite

Altair Engineering to Acquire Mecalog Group and its RADIOSS Technology Suite

June 20, 2006

Addition of RADIOSS Technology to Altair HyperWorks Will Create the Broadest Integrated CAE Product Family Offering in the PLM Community

   

    TROY, Mich. and ANTONY, France, June 20
/Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Altair Engineering, Inc., a leading
global provider of technology and services that strengthen
client innovation and decision-making, today announced it
has entered into an agreement to acquire the Mecalog Group
and its RADIOSS product family of computer-aided
engineering (CAE) software technology. Headquartered in
Antony, France, Mecalog is a leading global developer of
transient, non-linear CAE technology to simulate safety
related performance as well as other impact events. Under
the terms of the acquisition, Mecalog's global sales force,
software development and support staff will also become part
of Altair. Specific financial terms of the transaction are
not being disclosed. 

    "The Mecalog acquisition will add a globally
respected and talented software development and sales
organization to the Altair enterprise. There are many
cultural and technological similarities between Altair and
Mecalog, making the acquisition a natural fit. We look
forward to welcoming Mecalog's employees, customers and
partners into the Altair family," said James R. Scapa,
president and CEO of Altair Engineering. "The addition
of Mecalog's technology and industry expertise will further
strengthen Altair's technology portfolio for product
lifecycle management (PLM)."

    Following the acquisition of Mecalog, the Altair(R)
HyperWorks(R) CAE technology suite will contain robust
solver solutions for linear, non-linear, fluid and fluid
structure interaction, structural optimization and
multi-body dynamics applications, while delivering
best-in-class modeling, visualization and process
automation solutions. With an ongoing commitment to an
open-systems software philosophy, Altair will continue to
invest heavily and support independent software vendor
(ISV) relationships to ensure the highest level of
integration with third-party applications. 

    Francis Arnaudeau, chief technologist and co-founder of
Mecalog, will join Altair as managing director of the
RADIOSS development organization. In this role, he will
continue to oversee RADIOSS software development and lead
the advancement of this technology.  

    "The combination of Altair and the RADIOSS
technology suite will lead the CAE industry and Mecalog is
happy to become part of a world-class organization like
Altair," said Francis Arnaudeau, managing director of
Mecalog. "The strength and global footprint of Altair
will provide existing RADIOSS customers and new customers
with the highest-level of support and enable new product
development and integration benefiting key vertical
industries that rely on our technology."

    To strongly increase the level of service and rapidly
assess the opportunities to drive more value for current
Mecalog customers, Altair will significantly ramp up
technical and customer support for RADIOSS products
throughout its global operations. Mecalog currently has
more than 120 customers globally including Airbus, Alstom,
Centro Ricerche Fiat, EADS, Eurocopter, Faurecia, Ferrari,
Ford, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Pininfarina, PSA Peugeot
Citroen and Volvo Truck. Altair's current customer base
exceeds 3,000 which include a number of common customers
with Mecalog.

    "Altair and Mecalog have a number of mutual
customers who will benefit from a higher level of
technology integration and crossover software applications
brought together by this acquisition. Moreover, the
acquisition broadens Altair's industry presence within the
aerospace, naval, energy, nuclear, civil engineering and
medical markets," continued Mr. Scapa.

    The software development teams plan to work closely
together to develop roadmaps for the combined Altair and
RADIOSS product solutions. Initial integration plans
include bringing RADIOSS software products under Altair's
patented HyperWorks Unit licensing system to dramatically
increase the overall value proposition for all HyperWorks
and RADIOSS customers.

    More information regarding this acquisition is
available at http://www.altair.com/mecalog .

    About the Mecalog Group 

    The Mecalog Group mission is to provide a range of
robust and competitive products and services with strong
added value in the area of mechanical computer assisted
engineering (MCAE), focusing in the area of numerical
simulation of non-linear phenomena in applied mechanics. 

    RADIOSS, a widely acclaimed explicit and implicit
finite-element analysis program, enables the simulation of
mechanical, structural, fluid and fluid-structure
interaction phenomena under quasi static and dynamic event,
taking into account the non-linear materials behavior.
RADIOSS can therefore simulate problems as varied as
passive safety, stamping, forming, aero-acoustics and
structural wave propagation. Visit http://www.mecalog.com
for additional information.

    About Altair Engineering

    Altair Engineering, Inc. strengthens client innovation
and decision-making through technology that optimizes the
analysis, management and visualization of business and
engineering information. Privately held with more than 850
employees, Altair has offices throughout North America,
Europe and Asia/Pacific. With a 20-year-plus track record
for product design, advanced engineering software and grid
computing technologies, Altair consistently delivers a
competitive advantage to customers in a broad range of
industries. To learn more, please visit
http://www.altair.com .

    Altair and HyperWorks are registered trademarks of
Altair Engineering, Inc. All other trademarks are the
property of their respective owners. 

    For more information, please contact:

     Altair Engineering, Inc.
     Email: [e-mail]

SOURCE  Altair Engineering, Inc.