San Francisco: Engineering design software supplier Autodesk will acquire injection moulding and simulation software company Moldflow, according to an announcement by the companies.

California-based Autodesk said it would pay $22 a share in cash, totalling around $297 million, less the amount in Moldflow's cash balance at the time of closing and proceeds from options exercised, representing a 12 per cent premium to Moldflow's closing price of $19.61 on Friday. Subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals, the transaction is expected to close in the second calendar quarter of 2008.

Moldflow develops software for the design of plastic components. Headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts, Moldflow has research and development offices in Melbourne, Australia, and Ithaca, New York. It reported revenues of $55.9 million for 2007, and has around 285 employees. Post acquisition, the company will beef up Autodesk's line of digital prototyping software.

Autodesk had reported revenues of $1.6 billion and $918 million in cash at the end of the fiscal year 2007. This agreement will allow Autodesk's to provide a comprehensive digital prototyping to manufacturers of all sizes, and will allow them to optimize, validate and improve their designs earlier in the process.

Assuming the acquisition is completed in the second calendar quarter of 2008, Autodesk expects this transaction to be dilutive to its GAAP diluted earnings per share by between $0.07 and $0.08 in the second quarter of fiscal 2009.

This transaction is expected to be dilutive to non-GAAP diluted earnings per share by between $0.01 and $0.02 in the second quarter of fiscal 2009. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share excludes $16 million of pre-tax write offs related to in-process research and development (IPR&D) and amortization of acquisition related intangibles.

"Moldflow is a leader in computer integrated manufacturing and brings strong analysis and simulation capabilities to our Digital Prototyping solution," said Carl Bass, Autodesk president and CEO.

"Their strong brand recognition will further enhance our leadership in Digital Prototyping by bringing best-of-class simulation and optimization into our portfolio. The products of Autodesk and Moldflow are very complementary, and combining our product lines will expand the product offerings available to Autodesk's customers."

"We see strong synergies between Moldflow and Autodesk and are very excited about this transaction," said Roland Thomas, president and CEO, Moldflow.

"By combining Autodesk's and Moldflow's complementary product offerings, we can provide a wide and advanced range of software solutions to allow customers to address the challenges involved in the designing and manufacturing of injection molded plastic parts. The combined product capabilities for analysis and simulation will provide a fully optimized digital process for part design, tool design and part production, helping companies reduce their product development costs and increase their time to market."

This transaction is expected to decrease Autodesk's GAAP diluted earnings per share by approximately $0.10 in fiscal 2009. On a combined basis, the company expects GAAP diluted earnings per share of between $1.70 and $1.80.

Autodesk expects no impact to non-GAAP diluted earnings per share for fiscal 2009. Moldflow's expected impact on Autodesk's non-GAAP diluted EPS excludes $1 million in pre-tax stock-based compensation expenses and $22 million of pre-tax write offs related to IPR&D and amortization of acquisition related intangibles.