No, Cadence is not buying Clear Shape The EDA rumor mill is buzzing these days about a number of supposed acquisitions, but one that apparently isn't happening is Cadence Design Systems buying Clear Shape. And somehow, I seem to have become part of that rumor myself.	Richard Goering EDA Software Editor
Here's the story. Last week I got a tip about Cadence supposedly buying design for manufacturability (DFM) startup Clear Shape for $25 million. I got nowhere with it, and then I got a denial from Clear Shape. Atul Sharan, Clear Shape CEO, said that the rumors are "simply not true." End of story? Not quite! Today (May 23) there's a "Wiretap" item on John Cooley's Deepchip web site about the Cadence/Clear Shape rumor. Only this time, the price has risen since last week. Cooley writes: "I just kept an eye on the story until the next day when I had 2 other unrelated EDA people report in that Richard Goering was calling around asking people if it was true that Cadence had bought Clear Shape for $75 million!" Any inquiry I made would have been at the original $25 million figure. Where did the $75 million come from? I'm reminded of the children's game of "telephone" where everyone whispers the same statement into the next person's ear, and something totally different comes out the other end. This is how rumors take on a life of their own. And this particular rumor hasn't stopped yet. Cooley quotes a "reliable" source as saying that: "With respects to the Cadence/ClearShape chatter, the number(s) that I hear kicked around are in the $100 million range." I think Clear Shape is doing very well by not being acquired by Cadence — the price just keeps growing and growing! As Cooley reported last week, there are also a lot of unconfirmed rumors about Mentor Graphics buying Sierra Design Automation. Mentor's earnings call is tomorrow, so we may know more soon. Finally, as noted in yet another Wiretap, there are rumors about Magma Design Automation buying Silicon Canvas. With such rumors, there's little more than entertainment value until we can get some confirmation. Meanwhile, I think Atul Sharan should hang in there. Maybe the price tag on his non-acquisition by Cadence will be up to $200 million by next week. Posted by Richard Goering on May 23, 2007 01:39 PM in EDA Software

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