What does the US Federal Trade Commission have to say about Aspen Technology?
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said Monday that Aspen Technology Inc. (AZPN) has not complied with an order that required the company to sell certain engineering software assets as part of its 2002 acquisition of Hyprotech Ltd. Aspen Tech, a Massachusetts-based developer of simulation software, was supposed to sell some of Hyprotech’s software assets to Honeywell International Inc. (HON) in order to preserve competition that would have been eliminated by the $106 million acquisition of Hyprotech. The FTC said Aspen Tech has not transferred the software to Honeywell in a timely manner. The commission said it is ordering Aspen Tech to take additional steps to ensure the asset-transfer is completed. Aspen Tech denied that it violated the earlier order but agreed to abide by the new requirements, the FTC said. The FTC did not levy any monetary fines against Aspen Tech for the alleged violations, but one member of the commission said the agency should have done so
