GOVERNMENT

CANONSBURG, Pa. -- Stepping up to receive its third honor in 30 days, ANSYS Inc., a global innovator of simulation software and technologies designed to optimize product development processes, today announced it has been named to the FORBES 200 Best Small Companies, a list comprised of financially strong small-cap businesses. ANSYS ranked 56 among the 200 leading small companies in the nation. "Despite a rough economy and other forces that took the NASDAQ to its 6-year low, this year's FORBES 200 Best Small Companies is a stellar bunch of companies," editor Katrina Keller writes in the October issue of FORBES. "All of these companies are profitable, although some of them have experienced rough waters over the past few years, such as a slip in sales or earnings, their balance sheets indicate they have the muscle to remain viable entities over the long term. Each company on this list has earned its place and is, indeed, good enough to be called one of the best." The list, compiled by William O'Neill & Co., Los Angeles, selected companies based on five key criteria. "The criteria we use to screen candidates is tough," said Lesley Kump, FORBES statistician. "We looked only at public companies with latest-12-month sales of $5 million to $600 million, a stock price above $5 per share and five-year average return on equity of at least 5 percent. Growth notwithstanding, profitability was a must -- every nominee had to earn a net margin of at least 5 percent, excluding extraordinary and nonrecurring items." "Achieving this award during one of the most difficult economic periods in the past ten years is a tribute to the ANSYS team, working every day to provide outstanding products, services and support for all of our customers," said Jim Cashman, president and chief executive officer of ANSYS. "Helping our customers succeed in business has been the key to ANSYS' success." New to the FORBES 200 list this year was a review of relative stock price strength. The addition of this criteria enabled the reviewers to note companies that were doing particularly well or poorly relative to their peers and the market indexes.