SDRC sues to protect Ford contract
Thursday, June 11, 1998
BY MIKE BOYER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Structural Dynamics Research Corp. has sued to block one of its rivals
from becoming the Milford company's supplier for its largest contract
with Ford Motor Co.
U.S. District Judge Sandra Beckwith on Tuesday signed a temporary
restraining order preventing Control Data Systems Inc. of Arden Hills,
Minn., from transferring work or information under a 1996 agreement
between its ICEM Division and SDRC to Parametric Technology Corp.
Parametric, a Waltham, Mass.-based supplier of computer-aided
design software, is an SDRC competitor. A hearing on SDRC's request
for a preliminary injunction is set for June 25.
Parametric Wednesday completed a $45 million purchase of the ICEM
Division, which develops surfacing and engineering software for body
and styling engineers.
Under the 1996 agreement, ICEM is supplying SDRC with software and
services for SDRC's pact to provide design software to Ford and its
vendors to accelerate future vehicle design programs. SDRC agreed to
pay ICEM, which is based in Frankfurt, Germany, $4.2 million for the
work on the Ford contract, according to court papers. "It's our position
that the Ford Motor contract is extremely important to SDRC and to
convey part of the work to a major competitor, indeed one of the finalists
for the contract, is not acceptable," said Mark Vander Laan, a lawyer
for SDRC.
In SDRC's suit, filed Monday in Clermont County Common Pleas Court
and subsequently moved to federal court, the Milford software company
said Parametric was a "bitter and combative competitor" that was
unsuccessful in winning the Ford contract.
"When Ford rejected Parametric in favor of SDRC, Parametric plotted to
ruin SDRC, stating: SDRC's exclusive focus will be Ford. We must kill
them everywhere else so that when Ford disappears, they have
nothing," SDRC claims in court papers.
Representatives of Control Data and Parametric didn't return phone calls
for comment Wednesday.
SDRC said the Ford contract, more than half completed, is a significant
portion of its revenue, which totaled $351 million last year. SDRC has
estimated that the five-year agreement would generate revenue of $200
million from the automaker and additional sales from Ford suppliers.
Control Data had sought SDRC's approval to transfer its obligations
under the 1996 agreement to Parametric, but SDRC has refused,
according to court papers.
"SDRC has informed (Control Data) that Parametric is not a suitable
substitute for (Control Data) in the performance of the agreement
because of Parametric's aggressive conduct toward SDRC which
renders Parametric a uniquely unsuitable source of support for the Ford
contract," SDRC says in court papers. |
