E-mail
del.icio.us
Technorati
DiggThere hasn't been much M&A excitement in the electronic design automation market, other than tiny deals like the one Synopsys Inc. announced Tuesday. The maker of chip design software says it snapped up tiny Sandwork Design Inc., a maker of verification tools that help ensure that chip designs are sound before starting the manufacturing process.
The deal is nothing for venture capitalists to cheer about; like so many small software shops, Sandwork was entirely bootstrapped. It was founded in 2000 and has been turning a profit since 2001.
That's been the trend in EDA acquisitions. Perhaps the industry has settled back into its groove, with its three largest denizens -- Cadence Design Systems, Synopsys and Mentor Graphics Corp. -- comfortably splitting the lead while hundreds of tiny startups toil away with the clear aspiration of eventually getting acquired. There was some excitement in June when reports surfaced that private equity firms had kicked the tires at Cadence, but nothing came of it.
But with the window for tech initial public offerings still barely open, the notion of EDA startups going public, as a small crop of them did in 2001, is still unrealistic. Bon appetit, big guys. - Olaf de Senerpont Domis
See press release from Synopsys
See June 4 story from TheDeal.com
See May 2004 story from TheDeal.com
