IN THE NEWS

Business and technology news from the semiconductor and design tool industries.

In the News

Xilinx Inc. (San Jose, CA) announced that it has shipped the five millionth unit of its XC4000 FPGA product family.

Cooper & Chyan Technology Inc. (CCT) (Cupertino, CA) announced that it completed its acquisition of UniCAD Inc. (Ottowa, Ontario) Under terms of the agreement, UniCAD will continue to operate under its name as a wholly-owned subsidiary of CCT. CCT agreed in July to acquire UniCAD in a transaction valued at approximately $10.3 million.

C-Cube Microsystems Inc. (Milpitas, CA) announced the completion of its acquisition of DiviCom Inc. (Milpitas, CA), a digital video networking company that designs, integrates, and markets complete systems for the delivery of broadcast digital video networks. C-Cube paid $65.7 million, issued approximately 2.29 million shares of its common stock, and assumed options excercisable for approximately 264,000 shares of its common stock in exchange for the outstanding shares of DiviCom stock that C-Cube does not already own.

Movers and Shakers

Electronic Design Automation Companies (EDAC; San Jose, CA) appointed Pamela Parrish as its first full time executive director.

Whitetree Inc. (Palo Alto, CA) appointed Kathryn M. Hill as vice president of engineering.

FrontLine Design Automation Inc. (San Jose, CA) appointed Donald M. O'Rourke director of Eastern region sales.

Martin Sodos has joined SEVA Technologies (Fremont, CA) as director of its IC Design Center.

Ultima Interconnect Technology Inc. (Cupertino, CA) appointed Roy McGuffin the company's new president and CEO.

Silicon Valley Research Inc. (SVR; San Jose, CA) promoted Craig M. Wentzel to vice president, worldwide sales.

Ascent Logic Corp. (San Jose, CA) appointed Richard Crisman vice president of the Information Systems Strategic Business Unit (SBU).

Money Bits

Ansoft Corp. (Pittsburgh, PA) announced financial results for the first quarter of 1997 totaled $2.32 million, an increase of 24 percent from the $1.87 million reported in the previous year's fiscal first quarter. Excluding a one-time write-off of acquired in-process research and development, net income for the first quarter of fiscal 1997 would have been $317,000, or $0.04 per share, an increase of 248 percent from the $91,000, or $0.01 per share reported for the same period in fiscal 1996. The actual net loss of $2.7 million, or $0.35 per share for this quarter includes a one-time write-off of in-process research and development of $3.1 million related to the acquisition of the Electronics Business Unit (EBU) from the MacNeal Schwendler Corp. on July 24, 1996.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (Palo Alto, CA) reported a 26 percent decrease in net earnings for the third quarter of 1996. Net earnings for the quarter were $425 million, or $0.40 per share, on approximately 1.05 billion shares of common stock and common-stock equivalents outstanding. This compares with earnings of $0.55 per share on approximately 1.05 billion shares and equivalents outstanding in the third quarter of last year (all figures for earnings per share and number of shares outstanding reflect the company's two-for-one stock split, which took effect in July).

VLSI Research (San Jose, CA) remains optimistic about the continuing improvement in the semiconductor industry. It is predicting the U.S. book-to-bill ratio will rise again in September to 0.94 from the 0.91 recorded in August. Semiconductor equipment makers continue to see slow demand as IC makers fill excess capacity before making new fab investments.

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integrated system design  November 1996