Arbortext bought for $190 million

announced yesterday that it has entered into an agreement to acquire

, a recognised leader in the emerging Dynamic Enterprise Publishing market, for $190 million in cash.

Arbortext serves 1,700 customers worldwide in multiple industries, including discrete manufacturing and life sciences. With this acquisition, PTC says it will be positioned to enable customers to create, manage and dynamically publish critical information concurrently with the development of related products or services, improving time-to-market, quality, cost and customer satisfaction.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of July 2005, subject to customary conditions including regulatory approval. The transaction has been approved by Arbortext shareholders. PTC expects the acquisition will be accretive to earnings in fiscal 2006.

“This acquisition is a natural extension of PTC’s product development system vision,” said C. Richard Harrison, president and CEO of PTC. “Together with Arbortext, we will enable discrete manufacturing customers to manage product content and related documentation from concept through retirement.”

Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Arbortext has 250 employees in offices around the world and generated approximately $40 million of revenue during the past 12 months.

International market research firm IDC ranks Arbortext as a leader in the emerging Dynamic Enterprise Publishing software market, and predicts this market will grow more than 25% annually to over $1 billion in 2009.