APPLICATIONS

Innovative Database Architecture, Data Analysis and Dashboard Tools Expand Altair's Enterprise Data Management Solution for Business and Engineering: Altair Engineering, Inc., a leading global provider of technology to strengthen client innovation, today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire controlling interest in Hicare Srl, a privately held business intelligence software company headquartered in Torino, Italy. Specific financial terms of the transaction are not being disclosed. Hicare is the developer of Lilith Enterprise and Web Server business intelligence software, a robust decision-making support system with unparalleled graphing and reporting capabilities for interactive visualization of information. Built on a unique database architecture that combines relational, hierarchical and multidimensional database models, Lilith provides the ability to view and analyze captured data from multiple perspectives and user profiles. Hicare's diverse client base includes notable firms such as adidas, Diageo, Ferrero, Fiat, Levi Strauss & Company, Porsche Italia and TNT Global Express. "At Altair, we focus on helping our clients manage and gain insight from the growing volumes of corporate and product performance data," said James R. Scapa, president and CEO of Altair Engineering. "With an emphasis on technology for data analysis and visualization, we see the integration of Hicare's technology as fundamental for our clients to interactively search, mine, view and dashboard complex business and engineering information for rapid decision-making." "The global development resources and support infrastructure that Altair brings as part of this acquisition will greatly accelerate the strategic development of this groundbreaking technology and provide world-class support for its users worldwide," said Roberto Marchisio, president and co-founder of Hicare. "Our entire organization is excited to become an integral part of Altair's vision for client information capture and visualization." Lilith HyperCubes (data containers) are limitless in size and can contain different types of homogenous and non-homogeneous data. In fact, a single HyperCube can contain all the information for the entire enterprise. Uniquely positioned in the market, Hicare's HyperCube technology allows daily refreshing of business data and the ability to dynamically perform large-scale and complex operations through an integrated calculation engine, without the need to rebuild the HyperCube information. Altair plans to centralize Hicare's business activities as part of its United States-based world headquarters operations, and Hicare will continue the development of its business intelligence software in Italy. In addition, Altair will begin leveraging and integrating Hicare technology within Altair's commercial product offerings for data management, computer-aided engineering and grid computing. More information regarding this acquisition is available at its Web site.