LAVA - Magma Design Automation
I've read the company's last 10K, 10Q, read most of the contents of its website, including some of their White Papers. I've looked at the Synopsys and Cadence websites.
The company provides integrated design software suite to chip manufacturers which considerably speeds up deep micron, complex integrated circuit design.
There is a good plain English description of the company's technology in the last 10K, pp2 -7.
investor.magma-da.com.
The co's White papers I read are very useful if a person wants to understand what the software does in more detail.
The company's claims for the benefits of the product are correct, I should think, since it is selling to such companies as Vitesse and NEC and trumpeting its design successes in PRs. It describes in detail how it solves the costly design re-iteration problem by optimal design at each stage of the design process. - See
magma-da.com
magma-da.com
In this respect increasing revenues also should validate the Co's claims:
Revenues increased from $6.6 mil Q 06/30 2001 to $18.1 mil in Q 06/30/02. Costs as % of revenue declined as should be expected in a company which is only starting to sell its software. On operating basis the company broke even last quarter.
Company IPO'd last Nov at $13/share and has about $90 mil cash from this; has 30 mil shares outstanding and about 19 mil public float. No debt.
It seems to me that however tough things might be for the chip industry, anything which can cut design time by (eg) 30%, is a product chip designers must buy simply for the reductions in cost and time to market. Savings could well be greater than 30% if the customer testimonials on the website are a reasonable indicator and customers could get very quick payback (one design project).
I expect revenues should continue to grow rapidly.
Its competitors, Synopsys and Cadence, have a greater variety of product but it doesn't seem to me from looking at their websites that they have as efficient design integration methodology (I can't find them talking about it). Indeed Magma probably makes obsolete some of their offerings. But I'm not an expert and would be happy to hear views about this.
I have a question about this news:
Motorola, Philips and STMicroelectronics Debut Industry's First 90-Nanometer CMOS Design Platform
motorola.com.
The 90nm design platform is fully supported by the industry leading CAD tools from Cadence, Mentor Graphics and Synopsys through design solutions that are developed in partnership with their individual R&D groups.
Is this going to be an opportunity or a setback for LAVA? |
