IN THE NEWS

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

In the News

The Electronic Design Automation Consortium (EDAC) announced the availability of its Q3 1996 Market Statistics Service (MSS) report. EDAC's MSS report shows that the industry generated more than one billion dollars in new license revenues for the first three quarters of 1996: $1,028 million, which represents a 23 percent growth over the same period last year. In Q3 of 1996, EDA companies reported increased revenues in most application areas. Combined EDA product and maintenance revenues were $513 million, up almost 20 percent over the same quarter last year. EDAC's MSS reports revenue and new license data on the EDA industry by region, application, and service categories.

Agape Design Automation Inc. has changed its name to MyCAD Inc.

Praxis International (Framingham, MA) announced that it has reclaimed its historical name, Computer Corporation of America Inc.

Mentor Graphics Corp. (Wilsonville, OR) and Advocates for Women in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics (AWSEM) invited 12- to 14-year-old girls from schools in Oregon to tour the corporate campus of Mentor Graphics. AWSEM is working to encourage young women to consider careers in high-technology fields by sponsoring special events and having them interact with women engineers, software designers, and executives.

Analogy Inc. (Beaverton, OR) and the University of Hong Kong have formed a strategic partnership to establish a Center of Excellence for Electric Vehicle Design in Hong Kong. The Center will provide R&D facilities for the electric vehicle development program recently established by motor manufacturers and governments throughout South East Asia. Analogy is supporting the Center with $3.5 million worth of its Saber mixed-technology software and libraries as well as its MAST HDL.

AMD Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA) announced that has named its programmable logic subsidiary company Vantis Corp. Vantis Corp. will continue to use AMD's process technology, wafer fab, and packaging capabilities. Vantis also unveiled its new logo available on its Web site, www.vantis.com.

The semiconductor equipment book-to-bill went over 1.0, indicating the continued growth in all areas of electronics.

Cadence Design Systems Inc. (San Jose, CA) unveiled a new corporate logo. The logo will anchor the company's worldwide corporate branding and identity programs. The new logo symbolizes Cadence's evolution into a business solutions provider for developers of electronic products. Cadence has evolved its business model to include complete consulting and design services to augment its customers' product- development efforts.

QuickLogic Corp. (Sunnyvale, CA) announced a binding letter of intent with Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (San Jose, CA) to terminate the existing technology and foundry agreement between the two companies for QuickLogic's FPGA products, replacing it with a new foundry agreement. Under the new arrangement, QuickLogic's FPGA products will no longer be second sourced by Cypress, which retains the right to produce other types of products based on QuickLogic's ViaLink antifuse. The agreement also increases Cypress' equity position in privately-held QuickLogic and renews its wafer supply commitment through the year 2001.

Movers and Shakers

Viewlogic Systems Inc. announced that co-founder, chairman, and CEO Alain J. Hanover is handing the CEO job over to Will Herman , president of Viewlogic , immediately. Mr. Hanover will not stand for re-election to the board in May, leaving the company he has led since 1984. Mr. Herman rejoined Viewlogic in 1995, when Mr. Hanover had Viewlogic acquire Silerity, the company Mr. Herman founded after leaving Viewlogic . Mr. Herman came in as executive vice president and COO, and he was promoted last year to president.

Symantec Corp. (Cupertino, CA) appointed Howard Bain, III their new vice president of worldwide operations and CFO. Symantec also announced that Robert Dykes has been appointed to Symantec's Board of Directors.

Silicon Valley Group (San Jose, CA) has promoted Mahesh Shah to the newly created position of vice president of Asia/Pacific sales.

Prabhu Goel joined the board of directors of Synplicity Inc. Goel is the founder and chairman of Frontline Design Automation, recently merged with Avant!, and he also was the founder and CEO of Gateway Design Automation, which merged with Cadence Design Systems.

Cascade Design Automation added a new sales office in Bracknell, UK. Chris Smith , European technical director, and David Blagden , UK sales manager, will staff the office

Altera Corp. (San Jose, CA) announced the promotion of four executives. Denis Berlan has been promoted to executive vice president and appointed to the position of COO. Clive McCarthy is to be senior vice president of development engineering; Bruce Mielke has been promoted to vice president of product engineering; and Tim Southgate will be vice president of software engineering, reporting to McCarthy.

Money Bits

Microchip Technology Inc. filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a public offering of one million shares of Common Stock. The company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to reduce its outstanding indebtedness, for working capital and capital expenditures. The offering will be made only be means of a prospectus.

ROSS Technology Inc. (Austin, TX) reported a net loss of $35.2 million, or $1.50 per share, on revenue of $19.4 million for Q3 of fiscal 1997. The net loss in the current quarter reflects costs associated with a $37.0 million inventory write-down, an accounts receivable write-off of $5.8 million, and an increase in accounts receivable reserves of $5 million. Net sales for the quarter ended December 30, 1996 decreased 24 percent compared to the corresponding period of fiscal 1996, primarily because of reduced sales volume to ROSS Technology's OEM microprocessor chip customers. Net sales for the nine-month period are flat in comparison with the same period a year ago.

Technology Modeling Associates Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA) announced Q4 and year-end operating results. Total revenue for the last quarter, ended December 31, 1996 was $5.1 million, an increase of 24 percent over the previous year. Income from operations was $502,000, down 41 percent from the $857,000 a year earlier, primarily due to strategic investments in sales, marketing, and strategic services capabilities in 1996. Revenue for the year rose 43 percent to $18 million. Full year net income was $1.2 million, or $0.20 per share for 1996 compared with $1.3 million in 1995.

Avant! Corp. (Sunnyvale, CA) reported record operating results for its Q4 and fiscal year ended December 31, 1996. Revenue was $106 million, a 54 percent increase over 1995. Excluding merger and technology acquisition costs, which totaled $11 million, the net income was $12.5 million. Q4 revenue was $28.8 million, a 34 percent increase over the previous year.

Watkins-Johnson Co. (Palo Alto, CA) reported that un-audited results for 1996 showed record sales of $438.32 million. Net income amounted to $3.03 million, or $0.36 per share. Sales in Q4 of 1996 amounted to $94.17 million, with a net loss of $6.59 million, or $0.77 per share. Q4 net income was affected by pre-tax write-downs of excess and slow-moving inventory, and severance costs totaling $11 million.

Synopsys Inc. (Mountain View, CA) announced that the company has suspended its stock repurchase program in order to comply with pooling-of-interests accounting rules in connection with its proposed merger with EPIC Design Technology Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA). In May 1996, Synopsys ' Board of Directors authorized a program to repurchase up to two million shares of Synopsys common stock over a two-year period. As of December 31, 1996, Synopsys had systematically repurchased 566,389 shares of common stock under the program. On January 16, 1997, Synopsys announced that it had reached a definitive agreement to merge with EPIC Design Technology Inc. in a business combination to be accounted for as a pooling of interests. To comply with the pooling-of-interests guidance provided in SEC's Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 96, the company's Board of Directors authorized the suspension of the stock repurchase program. The repurchase program may be rescinded prior to the closing of the EPIC merger if necessary to comply with such pooling-of-interests guidance.

To voice an opinion on this or any Integrated System Design article, please e-mail your message to: michael@asic.com.

integrated system design  April 1997