ANSYS Acquires OPTIS, Becomes Industry's Leading Solution Provider for Autonomous Vehicle Simulation

PITTSBURGH, May 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- With today's completed acquisition of optical simulation leader OPTIS, ANSYS (NASDAQ: ANSS) now delivers the industry's most comprehensive solution for simulating autonomous vehicles. By adding OPTIS' optical sensor and closed-loop, real-time simulation to ANSYS's leading multiphysics portfolio, ANSYS offers the broadest toolset for validating the safety and reliability of autonomous vehicles — speeding time to market for these vehicles by mitigating the need for billions of miles of road testing.

The leading provider of software for scientific simulation of light, human vision and physics-based visualization, OPTIS delivers physics-based optical simulation solutions. With OPTIS, ANSYS capabilities now span the simulation of all sensors, including lidar, cameras and radar; the multiphysics simulation of physical and electronic components; the analysis of systems functional safety; as well as the automated development of safety-certified embedded software. This functionality can be integrated into a closed-loop simulation environment that interacts with weather and traffic simulators, enabling thousands of driving scenarios to be executed virtually.

The financial impact of autonomous vehicles is enormous, with analysts predicting this emerging technology will boost the global economy by $7 trillion. But the impact on human life is even more significant: autonomous vehicles have the potential to drastically reduce traffic accidents, saving more than 600,000 lives annually. Before they drive the highways in large numbers though, autonomous vehicles must first be proven safe through rigorous testing in complex driving environments, including boundless road conditions and weather scenarios. This would require billions of miles of physical road tests. The acquisition of OPTIS enables ANSYS to provide a faster, safer and more economical solution than physical testing of autonomous vehicles.

"More than 90 percent of automotive accidents are caused by human error, and autonomous vehicles have the potential to virtually eliminate accidents," said Eric Bantegnie, vice president and general manager, ANSYS. "By providing the most accurate and comprehensive multidisciplinary and cross-functional simulation technology on the market, ANSYS – along with OPTIS technology – will help bring safe, reliable autonomous vehicles to market sooner, reducing automotive accidents and deaths."

"As the industry races to develop safe autonomous vehicles, a comprehensive sensor solution is critical to autonomous vehicle development," said Jacques Delacour, OPTIS president and CEO. "Joining ANSYS enables us to provide the best radar, lidar and camera simulation in the market within one toolset. Together we will significantly speed the development of autonomous vehicles."

OPTIS has developed a photo-realistic virtual reality and closed-loop simulation platform, which will help speed the development of autonomous vehicles. Using this VR backbone – combined with other ANSYS solutions – automotive manufacturers can simulate the environment driverless vehicles are navigating, including road conditions, weather and one-way streets. ANSYS' pervasive simulation solutions will be used to drive virtual autonomous vehicles in realistic simulated environments. Using accurate models to replicate real-life vehicle encounters, autonomous vehicles can be driven for millions of miles in a virtual environment in a single day.

Beyond the autonomous vehicle sector, the acquisition reinforces ANSYS as a world-class simulation provider across various industries and verticals. Incorporating vision-integrated tools with ANSYS' existing solutions have enormous potential to transform customer offerings.  

"ANSYS' leading multiphysics analysis coupled with OPTIS' optical capabilities will drive eLumigen's next-generation solutions with a multiphysics approach to optical simulation solutions," said Mahendra Dassanayake, chief technology officer, eLumigen. "eLumigen is an existing customer of both ANSYS and OPTIS, the acquisition will further spur innovation and enable us to jumpstart the competition."

About ANSYS, Inc.

If you've ever seen a rocket launch, flown on an airplane, driven a car, used a computer, touched a mobile device, crossed a bridge, or put on wearable technology, chances are you've used a product where ANSYS software played a critical role in its creation. ANSYS is the global leader in Pervasive Engineering Simulation. We help the world's most innovative companies deliver radically better products to their customers. By offering the best and broadest portfolio of engineering simulation software, we help them solve the most complex design challenges and create products limited only by imagination. Founded in 1970, ANSYS employs thousands of professionals, many of whom are expert M.S. and Ph.D.-level engineers in finite element analysis, computational fluid dynamics, electronics, semiconductors, embedded software and design optimization. Headquartered south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., ANSYS has more than 75 strategic sales locations throughout the world with a network of channel partners in 40+ countries. 

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Forward Looking Information

Certain statements contained in this communication regarding matters that are not historical facts, including statements regarding the combination of OPTIS and ANSYS resulting in the most comprehensive solution for simulating autonomous vehicles, regarding ANSYS having the broadest toolset for validating the safety and reliability of autonomous vehicles, regarding the combined toolset speeding time to market, regarding ANSYS capabilities spanning the simulation of all sensors, regarding the financial impact of autonomous vehicles being enormous, regarding autonomous vehicles boosting the global economy by $7 trillion, regarding autonomous vehicles saving more than 600,000 lives annually and virtually eliminate accidents, regarding ANSYS being able to provide a faster, safer and more economical solution than physical testing, regarding ANSYS providing the most accurate and comprehensive multidisciplinary and cross-functional simulation technology on the market, regarding ANSYS together with OPTIS bringing safe, reliable autonomous vehicles to market sooner and reducing auto deaths and accidents, regarding comprehensive sensor solutions being critical to autonomous vehicle development, regarding ANSYS, together with OPTIS, speeding the development of autonomous vehicles, regarding ANSYS, together with OPTIS, being able to potentially transform customer offerings and regarding ANSYS, together with OPTIS, spurring customer innovation and enabling customer to jumpstart their competition are "forward-looking" statements (as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). Because such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements in this press release are subject to risks and uncertainties. These include the risk that the risk that the businesses of ANSYS and OPTIS may not be combined successfully or that such combination may take longer or cost more to accomplish than expected, and the risk that operating costs, customer loss and business disruption following the acquisition of OPTIS may be greater than expected.  Additional risks include the risk of a general economic downturn in one or more of the combined company's  primary geographic regions, the risk that ANSYS has overestimated its ability to maintain growth and profitability to control costs, uncertainties regarding the demand for the combined company's products and services in future periods, the risk that ANSYS has overestimated the strength of the demand among its customers for its products, risks of problems arising from customer contract cancellations, uncertainties regarding customer acceptance of new products, the risk that the combined company's operating results will be adversely affected by possible delays in developing, completing or shipping new or enhanced products, risks that enhancements to the combined company's products may not produce anticipated sales, uncertainties regarding fluctuations in quarterly results, including uncertainties regarding the timing of orders from significant customers, disruption from the transaction making it more difficult to maintain relationships with customers and employees and other factors that are detailed from time to time in reports filed by ANSYS, Inc. with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Reports on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017 and other documents ANSYS has filed.  ANSYS and OPTIS undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether changes occur as a result of new information or future events after the date they were made.

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