Dassault Systèmes S.A., the parent company of Providence-based software firm Simulia, said last week it plans to pay about $600 million to buy an IBM sales and client support division.

The French software company said it would purchase IBM’s portfolio of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software applications, along with 1,000 customer contracts and other assets. If approved, the transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2010, and 700 IBM employees will join Dasasult.