Altium moves AGAIN!

[rsjsouza]

Altium gossip is very popular in these forums.

The owner of the forum used to work there, therefore he keeps up with the way the company is going.

China was supposed to be the biggest growth area

I am pretty sure it has the biggest growth, but very few folks buy software there (as well as in several other developing countries).

[vk6zgo]

The biggest growth industry in Australian Business circles is Bullshit!!
It has been since the pioneering work of Telecom Australia with "Vision 2000" back in the late 1980s!

[free_electron]

We though we could get plenty of cheap R&D programmers in China, but we discovered that was a myth. Oops.

chinese programmers have no loyalty. they work somewhere to learn then go across the street for 1$ an hour more where they pull the same stunt until they open their own shop...

another reason was that china was an emerging market and responsable for almost 95% of all illegal altium installations in the world. moving there got them firepower since they were now principally a chinese company. guess that bombed as well.

[Wilksey]

Ho Lee fart nuggets, that is a massive building!

Question, I assume you used to work in that building at one time Dave?

If they make software why do they need such a massive place? I mean, I doubt they make PCB's or anything there surely?

It does look like an awesome place to work in though, a very nice building indeed!

[elgonzo]

The building does not look too massive, just three floors. However, the Altium annual report from June 2013 reports that at that time Altium had only 20 employees in Australia (vs. 365 employees globally). That sounds like a lot of empty spaces in that building... 

[DerekG]

chinese programmers have no loyalty. they work somewhere to learn then go across the street for 1$ an hour more

I would move too. That's a doubling of the guy's wages!

Nick Martin (founding Protel/Altium CEO) did three smart things in his life and the Altium Board of Directors did one smart thing in their life;

1/ Martin floated the company on the Australian Stock Exchange;

2/ Martin held on to many of his Altium shares until 2 years after he was pushed from the Board.

3/ The Altium board pushed Martin off the board in October 2012 (Martin was so unhappy at being pushed he demanded "the Altium board to convene a general meeting and gave notice that he intends to file shareholder resolutions to remove most of the sitting directors" - http://pcdandf.com/cms/designnews/9463-ousted-martin-to-altium-board-not-so-fast)

http://pcdandf.com/cms/designnews/9443-end-of-an-era-martin-out-at-altium
"According to PCD&F sources, certain Altium directors had privately been unhappy with Martin for some time over the financial performance of the company. Martin, however, was as tied to Altium as Steve Jobs was to Apple, having founded the company (then known as Protel) in 1985".

4/ When Martin was pushed, Altium shares were worth just AUD$0.25ea;

5/ Whilst absent from the company, shares rose to AUD$2.50ea which encouraged Martin to sell his shareholding in October 2013 for AUD$30.85 million.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/altium/altium-designer-new-pricing-model-and-high-end-low-end-tool-in-development/msg406199/#msg406199

By removing Martin from the decision making processes, Martin has been able to retire a very wealthy man. Martin may hate the new Directors at Altium, but his wallet sure loves them to bits.

[Wilksey]

Depends what size you are used to!  Here in the UK the buildings are quite pissant compared to that one, its much bigger than the place I work at and we have 150 employees!

Reminds me of something that may have once housed a google team!

[EEVblog]

Altium gossip is very popular in these forums. Is it because they are Australian? There is almost none about more popular companies like Cadsoft, Fluke, Atmel and Hakko.

People have a soft spot for their favorite PCB package, and it helps that Altium has always been so hilariously funny and downright bizarre in the things that they do. Not to mention that it's been pissing off almost every customer since they floated. So yeah, you do stupid things, you get talked about.

[EEVblog]

The owner of the forum used to work there, therefore he keeps up with the way the company is going.

I and countless others used to gossip about Altium on other forums long before I ever worked there.

[EEVblog]

The building does not look too massive, just three floors. However, the Altium annual report from June 2013 reports that at that time Altium had only 20 employees in Australia (vs. 365 employees globally). That sounds like a lot of empty spaces in that building... 

According to current gossip, there are less than a dozen people still working there.
My campaign to have it turned into the worlds biggest hacker space failed.

[DerekG]

My campaign to have it turned into the worlds biggest hacker space failed.

That's because I'm attempting to have it made into 5 star Back Packer accommodation 

[EEVblog]

Question, I assume you used to work in that building at one time Dave?

Yep, 2nd top floor with a view over the bushland.

If they make software why do they need such a massive place? I mean, I doubt they make PCB's or anything there surely?

They had a small scale production facility on part of the lower floor. And just before we left, ordered their own pick'n'place machine. But that was more for playing around with than serious work, as all Nanoboard assembly had long since been done in Shanghai. It was almost entirely programmers, sales people, support, marketing, management etc.

It does look like an awesome place to work in though, a very nice building indeed!

Yes, it was state of the art. My cubicle was large and had no less than 4 1Gbps ethernet ports. As did all the cubicles. Fully staffed and catered free canteen and other perks, very nice place to work.

[EEVblog]

5/ Whilst absent from the company, shares rose to AUD$2.50ea which encouraged Martin to sell his shareholding in October 2013 for AUD$30.85 million.
By removing Martin from the decision making processes, Martin has been able to retire a very wealthy man. Martin may hate the new Directors at Altium, but his wallet sure loves them to bits.

$30M is nothing, he used to be worth a lot more. Altium floated at $2 15 years ago and rose to over $5 at one point. And he used to have a lot more shares back then.

[gregariz]

The biggest growth industry in Australian Business circles is Bullshit!!
It has been since the pioneering work of Telecom Australia with "Vision 2000" back in the late 1980s!

There are no balls for industry anymore. Just when you think Australia couldn't lose any more industry it finds a way. I heard from the folks that SPC may be going to fail. They grow the stuff nearby and they can't stuff it in a tin?

I guess they still make dogfood in Aus.

[zapta]

-People have a soft spot for their favorite PCB package, and it helps that Altium has always been so hilariously funny and downright bizarre in the things that they do. Not to mention that it's been pissing off almost every customer since they floated. So yeah, you do stupid things, you get talked about.

I used their product about 10 years ago, I think, it was called Protel Pads or something like that. It did just layout and we used to export from Orcad.  I remember that manual routing was very good and fun to use.  Possibly the love/hate relationship with them is because most of us cannot afford their products and need to live with lesser ones.

The professional EDA market is hard, especially for smaller players that needs to compete with the big boys. I spent a few years working on routing algorithms and most of my friends ended up at Cadance, through sequences of acquisitions. This is the typical 'exit' for EDA startups.

[ludzinc]

My plebs at work just finished a 3 day training course with Alitum.

Presenter mentioned ('I shouldn't be saying this but ...') that Altium were losing too many big defence contracts due to perceived security risks, being based in China.

Could be complete bollocks, but it's too juicy a rumour to not share.

[envisionelec]

My plebs at work just finished a 3 day training course with Alitum.

Presenter mentioned ('I shouldn't be saying this but ...') that Altium were losing too many big defence contracts due to perceived security risks, being based in China.

Could be complete bollocks, but it's too juicy a rumour to not share.

More likely than not. My employer's parent company does mostly military business and had to shed our division (with factories in China) to remain ITAR compliant.

[koko79]

Surely the Altium bods would know that defence Companies would be put off by the China move?!

[EEVblog]

Presenter mentioned ('I shouldn't be saying this but ...') that Altium were losing too many big defence contracts due to perceived security risks, being based in China.
Could be complete bollocks, but it's too juicy a rumour to not share.

No, likely very real, been plenty of real concern about that on Altiums own forum since the China thing was announced.

[Legit-Design]

Presenter mentioned ('I shouldn't be saying this but ...') that Altium were losing too many big defence contracts due to perceived security risks, being based in China.
Could be complete bollocks, but it's too juicy a rumour to not share.

No, likely very real, been plenty of real concern about that on Altiums own forum since the China thing was announced.

Nothing new really: http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/11/3488584/huawei-zte-us-government-security-investigation

http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/8/3472316/huawei-zte-china-spying-house-intelligence-committee/in/3252625

On 8 October 2012, a US House Intelligence Committee panel issued a report describing Huawei as a "national security threat" due to its alleged ties to various Chinese governmental agencies. The panel's report suggested that Huawei should "be barred from doing business with the US government", and additionally alleged that the telecom manufacturer had committed "potential violations" related to immigration, bribery, corruption, and copyright infringement.[176] However, a subsequent White House-ordered review found no concrete evidence to support the House report's espionage allegations.

If they don't trust Chinese made devices, then why would they trust Chinese made software that usually has to be connected to internet for licencing?

[DerekG]

... very real, been plenty of real concern about that on Altiums own forum since the China thing was announced.

It would appear that the Altium Board never completed a proper business plan if they knew this before the shift to China.

Not only did they did not manage to pick up any significant customer numbers in Asia, they managed to piss off their high end paying customers in the west.

Of course the board will now report to its shareholders that the reason for the shift back to the USA is to regain the support of its western customer base.

[DerekG]

My plebs at work just finished a 3 day training course with Alitum.

Presenter mentioned ('I shouldn't be saying this but ...') that Altium were losing too many big defence contracts due to perceived security risks, being based in China.

The question is "What design software were these defence contractors moving across to?"

Maybe we should be following them.

[Marco]

5/ Whilst absent from the company, shares rose to AUD$2.50ea which encouraged Martin to sell his shareholding in October 2013 for AUD$30.85 million.

Everything's bubbling up, the fundamentals show no inflection point.

[ludzinc]

My plebs at work just finished a 3 day training course with Alitum.

Presenter mentioned ('I shouldn't be saying this but ...') that Altium were losing too many big defence contracts due to perceived security risks, being based in China.

The question is "What design software were these defence contractors moving across to?"

Maybe we should be following them.

Mentor Graphics is used often in Defence circles.

Not for the hobbiest - first step is install a server....

[T3sl4co1l]

My plebs at work just finished a 3 day training course with Alitum.

Presenter mentioned ('I shouldn't be saying this but ...') that Altium were losing too many big defence contracts due to perceived security risks, being based in China.

The question is "What design software were these defence contractors moving across to?"

Maybe we should be following them.

Mentor Graphics is used often in Defence circles.

Not for the hobbiest - first step is install a server....

First step is refund that shit, second step buy Altium, or anything else better.

Tim