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Technology Stocks : Cadence Design Systems -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dinesh who wrote (534)	9/9/1999 9:11:00 PM
From: Ian@SI	Respond to of 668

CDN to seek right to appeal... Cadence To Ask For Right To Appeal Ruling In Avant Case By Maria V. Georgianis NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Cadence Design Systems Inc. (CDN) Friday will seek the right to appeal a federal judge's decision that it can't pursue trade secret claims against competitor Avant Corp. (AVNT). Cadence and Avant are slated to meet with U.S. District Court Judge Ronald M. Whyte in his San Jose, Calif., courtroom Friday morning. Whyte said Wednesday that Cadence couldn't pursue trade secret claims against Avant because they are barred by a release signed by Cadence on June 6, 1994. However, the judge said that Cadence can continue to pursue copyright infringement claims that arose after the release was signed. The judge, according to Avant, also ruled that Cadence isn't able to receive punitive damages if it prevails in its copyright claims. The release was signed by Cadence when former executive Gerald Hsu was recruited to join Avant as its president. It prevented Cadence from seeking trade secret claims against Hsu and Avant that occured prior to June 6, 1994. But, "we didn't know when that agreement was signed that our software was stolen," Cadence general counsel Smith McKeithen told Dow Jones Newswires. McKeithen said Cadence has evidence that shows several former Cadence employees who formed Avant in 1991 stole Cadence's software secrets. Since 1995, Cadence has been pursuing a trade secret case against Avant, alleging that the company stole secrets about its place-and-route software to design its software. McKeithen said the company can still pursue damages in a copyright case. He estimated the damages, to be decided by a jury, could range in the "hundreds of millions of dollars." In addition, Cadence can still pursue copyright claims on products that Avant sold after June 6, 1994, even if they used technology developed before 1994, McKeithen said. A trial in the civil case is slated for Oct. 12. A separate criminal case is pending against Hsu, now Avant's chief executive, and seven others on charges of conspiracy, theft of trade secrets and fraud. The criminal case is set to begin trial Nov. 15. An Avant spokesperson didn't immediately return a call for comment. -By Maria V. Georgianis

To: Dinesh who wrote (534)	9/10/1999 9:14:00 AM
From: Carl R.	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 668

Since you wanted CDN to go down in reaction to the bad news of the adverse decision, I presume you're short CDN then? I agree that it is surprising that CDN didn't go down. Normally the market cap gained by AVNT in reaction to the decision should have been offset by a market cap loss by CDN, which would imply that CDN should have gone down by about 1 3/8. Since it didn't, it would seem to indicate that the market believes CDN is overly cheap already. Thus you probably won't get an opportunity to cover your short at under 10 again unless the market really tanks in October. Carl