ANSYS, Inc.
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ANSYS, Inc. headquarters building in Cecil Township, Pennsylvania.
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| Public | |
| Traded as |
NASDAQ: ANSS S&P 500 Component |
| Industry | Computer software |
| Founded | Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, United States (1970) |
| Headquarters | Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, United States |
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Key people
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James E. Cashman III, Chairman Ajei S. Gopal, President and CEO |
| Products | ANSYS suite of engineering simulation software |
| Revenue | $988 million (2016) |
| $376 million (2016) | |
| $265,636 (2016) | |
| Total assets | $2.8 billion (2016) |
| Total equity | $2.2 billion (2016) |
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Number of employees
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+2,800 (2016) |
| Website | www |
Ansys, Inc. is a public company based in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. It develops and markets engineering simulation software. Ansys software is used to design products and semiconductors, as well as to create simulations that test a product's durability, temperature distribution, fluid movements, and electromagnetic properties.
Ansys was founded in 1970 by John Swanson. Swanson sold his interest in the company to venture capitalists in 1993. Ansys went public on NASDAQ in 1996. In the 2000s, Ansys made numerous acquisitions of other engineering design companies, acquiring additional technology for fluid dynamics, electronics design, and other physics analysis.
The idea for Ansys was first conceived by John Swanson while working at the Westinghouse Astronuclear Laboratory in the 1960s. At the time, engineers performed finite element analysis (FEA) by hand. Westinghouse rejected Swanson's idea to automate FEA by developing general purpose engineering software, so Swanson left the company in 1969 to develop the software on his own. He founded Ansys under the name Swanson Analysis Systems Inc. (SASI) the next year, working out of his farmhouse in Pittsburgh.
Swanson developed the initial Ansys software on punch-cards and used a mainframe computer that was rented by the hour. Westinghouse hired Swanson as a consultant, under the condition that any code he developed for Westinghouse could also be included in the Ansys product line. Westinghouse also became the first Ansys user.
By 1991 SASI had 153 employees and $29 million in annual revenue, controlling 10 percent of the market for finite element analysis software. According to The Engineering Design Revolution, the company became "well-respected" among engineering circles, but remained small. In 1992, SASI acquired Compuflo, which marketed and developed fluid dynamics analysis software.
In 1993, Mr. Swanson sold his majority interest in the company to venture capitalist firm TA Associates. Peter Smith was appointed CEO and SASI was renamed after the software, Ansys, the following year. Ansys went public in 1996, raising about $46 million in an initial public offering. By 1997, Ansys had grown to $50.5 million in annual revenue.
In the late 1990s, Ansys shifted its business model. It focused less on selling software licenses and corresponding revenue declined. However, revenue from services increased more dramatically. From 1996 to 1999, profits at Ansys grew an average of 160 percent per year. In 1999, Ansys acquired Centric Engineering Systems, a private company based in California that developed fluid, structural and thermal analysis software.
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