Artisan and Aonix merger will 'shape the industry for years to come'

The new company – Atego – is based in San Diego and has been created to offer design and development tools and services for modeling along with Ada and Java development solutions. The full product suite also includes tools for requirements interchange, cosimulation, tool chain integration, process authoring and deployment. The management, employees and existing shareholders continue to own the majority of the combined group, with backing from investors ETV and Spark Ventures. Artisan's former ceo, James Gambrell has been appointed as executive chairman of Atego, and Pierre Cesarini, formerly ceo of Aonix now serves as the ceo of Atego. In addition to the appointment of the chairman and ceo, the existing management teams will be merged into one. Artisan made a number of acquisitions in 2007 and 2008, the latest being the purchase of Extessy and Brass Bullet during the last quarter of 2009. Gambrell believes that the merger with Aonix will gain access to new growth opportunities. He said: "In addition to the clear strategic benefits of combining these two, highly complementary organisations and product families, we can create substantial scale and gain access to new growth opportunities. Even at such a challenging time within our industry, both organisations have achieved success, allowing us to combine and play a market leading role. Together with our customers and partners and further acquisitions to come, we will shape the industry for years to come." Atego's San Diego headquarters will be complemented by sales and support operations in the US, UK, Germany, France and Italy.