According to reports from Bloomberg News, Autodesk is in the early stages of considering the acquisition of its rival PTC.
Despite the early-stage nature of the claim, Bloomberg sources have suggested that the deal would involve cash and stocks to takeover PTC, which has a current market value of around $25 billion.
With prescendence already set in the design and engineering software market by the recent acquisitions of Altair and Ansys by Siemens and Syopsys, respectively, it’s clear that the sector is in a period of consolidation.
At close of Wednesday’s New York trading PTC’s share price climbed 18% to $210.47, while Autodesk fell initially to 4.7% before closing on 2.4% at $307.27 a share.
With James Heppelmann stepping back from the office of CEO in February 2024, current incumbent Neil Barua has made no public mention of the company or its assets being for sale, although his professional history has put him at the helm of several companies as they were being positioned to be acquired.
Barua joined PTC as part of the Service Max acquisition in 2019, where he had been appointed its CEO by Silver Lake, his employers and Service Max investors. He had already carried out similar roles at IPC Systems on behalf of Silver Lake.
Autodesk, meanwhile, continues its restructuring, having released nearly 9% of its workforce earlier in 2025 as part of a plan aimed at reallocating resources towards ‘strategic priorities’, including AI, cloud platforms and industry-specific solutions.
Much of the noise remains a single rumour from Bloomberg News’ unnamed source, although it would remain to be seen if the move would be for PTC in its entirety – taking in its portfolio of CAD tools, including Creo and Onshape; its Windchill and Arena PLM businesses; Vuforia XR software, as well as QMS, IIOT and other industrial applications – or singled out assets to bolster Autodesk’s list of priorities.
