PARIS and PROVIDENCE – Simulation and product lifecycle management (PLM) software developer Dassault Systèmes has agreed to acquire Cary, N.C.-based Engineous Software Inc. for about $40 million and combine it with DS’ Simulia simulation-software division, the companies said in a joint announcement. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of next month.

The acquisition is expected to close by the end of next month, subject to various closing conditions, DS said. The transaction is not expected to affect the company’s 2008 earnings forecast.

“The combination of Simulia’s domain expertise in realistic simulation, the new Dassault Systèmes V6 PLM 2.0 platform and industry-proven Engineous technology will provide customers with an unmatched capability for collaborative management of simulation applications, processes, data and intellectual property,” Scott Berkey, CEO of Providence-based Simulia, said in a statement yesterday. “Our new SLM solution is already establishing market leadership momentum and the integration of Engineous’ FIPER framework, as well as its design performance exploration tools, will enrich and quicken our clients’ capabilities to deliver better products.”

FIPTER – the product of the Federated Intelligent Product EnviRonment project, originally sponsored through an industry alliance that included Goodrich, General Electric, OAI, Parker Hannifin and Ohio University – is a distributed product-development infrastructure that allows organizations to access, execute, and reuse design simulation tools and processes. Its Web-based structure eases connections both within an organization and with outside partners and geographically dispersed design teams.

Engineous’ flagship product, iSight, is a “software robot” designed to help engineers optimize product designs and more quickly evaluate design alternatives.

“We are extremely pleased to be joining Dassault Systèmes and the Simulia brand team,” said Exigeneous founder Siu Tong.

“Our vision, from the start, has been to help define and build solutions for the management and automation of simulation activities within the enterprise. Becoming part of Dassault Systèmes will allow our team to play an integral role in the democratization of realistic simulation for companies, their ecosystem and their customers, establishing Simulia SLM as the standard for enterprise simulation frameworks.”

The North Carolina company has more than 300 customers around the world, including Boeing, GM, Nissan, Procter & Gamble, Caterpillar, Canon, Rolls Royce, United Technologies, General Electric, Samsung and Toyota.

The transaction was praised yesterday by Byungsik Kang, of the Vehicle Technology Center at Hyundai-Kia Motors’ corporate research and development division, who said: “We have enjoyed considerable success in deploying solutions from both Dassault Systèmes and Engineous as part of our overall digital engineering capability.

“The integration of Engineous and SIMULIA solutions within the open Dassault Systèmes environment represents an exciting opportunity for CAD/CAE system improvements which we look forward to with great interest as our enterprise digital engineering strategy evolves. We are very pleased with this unification from our most dependable partners.”

Dassault Systèmes (Nasdaq: DASTY and Paris: DSY) specializes in 3D and product lifecycle management (PLM) software. It is the parent of the Providence-based Simulia, a developer of DS-simulation software including the Abaqus and Catia analysis applications. For more information, visit www.simulia.com.

Engineous Software Inc., based in Cary, N.C., is a developer of exploration and optimization software for the manufacturing industry. Its products focus on automating the use of existing simulation and design programs. For more information, visit www.engineous.com.