According to the spokesperson, the deal has not closed and is pending review by Germany's Federal Cartel Office. The spokesperson would not comment on when a deal would be finalized, but said that under German law the Federal Cartel Office has one month to decide if it wants to investigate the proposed merger.

The Synopsys spokesperson declined to comment on the value of the acquisition.

Acquiring Sigma-C could give Synopsys a leg up on competitors in the hot design-for-manufacturability (DFM) space. Sigma-C (Munich) has for years marketed a software package, Solid E, for simulating and modeling optical lithography. Last May, the company broadened its focus with a DFM product, Solid+, targeted at process engineers, designers and optical proximity correction engineers.

Synopsys executives already tout the company's DFM offerings as the most comprehensive in the industry. Earlier this week, the company rolled out Prime Yield, designed to predict the design-induced mechanisms that threaten yield and to provide automated correction guidance to upstream design implementation tools. The tool includes a lithography compliance check capability.