Product Life-Cycle-Management Software Consolidation

Product life-cycle-management app vendor Agile Software Corp. is buying Eigner Inc., a privately held maker of similar software for the automotive, industrial-equipment, aerospace, and defense industries.

The acquisition is Agile's second in as many months. In June, it bought certain customer assets and intellectual property of privately held MS2 Inc., a maker of product-portfolio-management tools. The product life-cycle-management market is gaining a lot of attention, particularly in industries trying speed up product development by increasing collaboration among product designers and sourcing, engineering, and manufacturing staff. ARC Advisory Group says the market for such software and services will grow from $6.3 billion this year to $14.1 billion in 2007.

A combined Agile and Eigner would have more than 1,000 customers and a product line that includes software designed for niches such as automotive supply chain, industrial machinery, aerospace and defense, life sciences, consumer products, and electronics. Financial details of the stock and cash deal were not released.

Agile has reported negative preliminary earnings for the quarter ended July 31. It says revenue will be $18.2 million on a GAAP net loss of 5 to 6 cents per share. Final results will be reported Aug. 19.