Dassault Joins With Rand Worldwide

reprinted by permission of Ralph Grabowski, editor
WorldCAD Access
April 15, 2004

Some months ago, Rand WorldWide promised a big investment announcement. Today, Dassault Systemes made that announcement: the French company is investing US$8.5 million in Rand (a Canadian company) through an arrangement that creates a new US company called Rand Americas.

(Briefly, Rand is a "super dealer" that used to sell software from Parametric Technologies. The two had a falling out, and are now engaged in law suits, claiming hundreds of millions in damages. Rand is recovering from financial shortcomings with the help of CDN$38 million in loans from PTC rival Dassault.)

Here's the deal:

1. Rand Worldwide transfers its North American sales business unit (including 55 employees) to RAND America. (Not included are Rand  subsidiaries, such as its AutoCAD-oriented IMAGINiT Technologies, or its operations in Europe and Asia or some 700 other employees.)
2. The new US company is majority owned (60%) by Dassault, and 40% owned by RAND Worldwide; Rand Americas becomes a subsidiary of Dassault as well as an IBM Business Partner. With Dassault as the controlling owner of Rand Americas, will we eventually see the "Rand" part  of the name changed? Not necessarily: both Rand and Dassault have the right to 100% purchase. In an exclusive interview, Rand tells WorldCAD  Access that they intend to buy back controlling interest -- once they can afford to.
3. Dassault pays Rand Worldwide CDN$11 million and reschedules Rand Worldwide's loan payments. (Dassault had earlier extended a CDN$9 million loan to Rand to help it survive after it was cut off by PTC. The $11 million pays off part of the loan and accrued interest; the rest of the loan will be paid off over 8.5 years.) 
4. The current CEO of Rand Worldwide, Brian Semkiwl, becomes CEO of Rand Americas, while Rand Worldwide president Frank Baldesarra takes his place as CEO of Rand Worldwide.

What does the deal mean? Rand gets to survive, helping it "return to global profitability" as it builds up its ability to sell Dassault products in North, Central, and South America - judging from the plural ("s") in Rand Americas.

What does Dassault get out of it? Answer: "To grow Dassault Systemes' PLM Solutions market share" at a low cost. Isn't that the purpose of IBM,  Dassault's North American marketing agent? 

Maybe not. Today's announcement could be the way for Dassault to transition to direct sales in the world's most lucrative market, the USA. Has Dassault bought the North American operations of Rand to replace IBM?

About the Author

Ralph Grabowski is an editor at upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. (previously known as XYZ Publishing, Ltd.). Ralph is the author of 60 books and several hundred articles for dozens magazines and newsletters about CAD, graphics, and the Internet.

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