Cadence to Acquire Simplex for $300M
Online staff -- Electronic News, 4/24/2002
e-insite.net
In a day of consolidation for the EDA industry, Cadence Design Systems Inc. today announced it has signed a definitive merger agreement to acquire Simplex Solutions Inc. for $300 million in stock.
Simplex brings to Cadence expertise in the field of deep-submicron (DSM) system-on-a-chip (SOC) verification. Simplex will provide Cadence with complementary technology for 3D parasitic extraction and full-chip power-grid planning, electromigration and signal integrity products. The two companies said they are a good fit with Simplex’s multi-million-gate digital design services complementing Cadence’s analog and mixed-signal design.
DSM products are increasingly important as the industry migrates to process geometries of 0.13-micron and below. Cadence said that to be successful at these smaller geometries, designers need tools that can easily interoperate, support hierarchical design methods and rapid prototyping, and that take into account critical DSM effects such as signal integrity, voltage (IR) drop, electromigration and substrate noise.
The deal is just the latest in a wave of mergers within the EDA industry. Earlier today, Mentor Graphics Corp. announced plans to acquire PCB design tool company Innoveda Inc. for about $160 million. In December Synopsys Inc. bought Avant! Corp., and recently both Synopsys and Mentor Graphics have been trying to acquire San Jose-based hardware verification company Ikos Systems Inc.
"Our strategy is to bring the best technology to market for 0.13-micron-and-below design," said Ray Bingham, president and CEO of Cadence, in a statement. "We have been building the solutions for the next generation of IC design for more than a year now. We are executing through our own innovation, accelerated by the acquisition of leading-edge technology from CadMOS, Silicon Perspective Corp. and Plato Design Systems." |
