Nemetshek N.A. acquires Graphisoft

At the end of December, Nemetschek announced that it acquired controlling interest in Graphisoft. This continues the corporation's aggressive acquisition of key players in the marketplace. As you know, we've been fiercely competing with Graphisoft for nearly the lifespan of the product, so this is quite an interesting turn of events. It puts Nemetschek in a much stronger position globally, since Graphisoft and VectorWorks sell into nearly all markets, attaining nearly total control of the architectural market on the Macintosh.

As with the acquisition of Diehl Graphsoft in 2000, there has been immediate speculation about the sudden and drastic changes that people fear in the product lines. When you look back over the past six years, you see instead that VectorWorks has flourished under the stewardship of Nemetschek—more than doubling in sales and accelerating the pace of product improvements delivered. It has done this while maintaining much of its independence and small-company attitude, yet, at the same time, competing with a spirit of "friendly competition" where products and channels overlap with other divisions. We have been a success story for the corporation, and the acquisitions team at Nemetschek plans a similar success with Graphisoft.

Nemetschek's broad range of products serve one goal ultimately: to give customers the choice they need in the marketplace. Unlike Autodesk, we need to compete solely on product merit rather than relying on product momentum and monopolistic tactics, and we realize that there is a wide variety of customer needs that is hard to fulfill with a single product. Nemetschek is allowing the customer to decide, rather than the product planners.

I've already had a chance to talk to the management of Graphisoft and discuss how we can further these goals while maintaining the strengths of our product lines. Even though we see each other at trade shows and often talk to the same customers, the approaches our products take to making architectural design more efficient are very different. Over the next few months, you can expect to hear more details about how we'll be using our new alliance to make further inroads into the market. What you can count on is that VectorWorks will continue on its path of success.

Sean Flaherty
CEO, Nemetschek North America

About Nemetschek N.A.
Nemetschek North America is a wholly-owned subsidiary of European software giant Nemetschek AG. A global leader in design technologies, Nemetschek N.A. has been developing CAD software for the AEC, entertainment, landscape design and manufacturing fields since 1985. VectorWorks, its flagship product, is one of the world's best selling cross-platform CAD applications. It is available in more than 85 countries and is translated into seven languages. An all-in-one solution that’s easier to learn and use and more cost-effective than most other CAD programs, VectorWorks is ideal for firms that don’t have unlimited IT budgets.

For more information, visit http://www.nemetschek.net

About CU's 3D Group:
Computers Unlimited's 3D Design Group focuses on specialist products from a number of vendors including Nemetschek N.A., Abvent, autodessys, NewTek, @Last Software, AEC Software and Informatix.