SpringSoft completes merger with Novas and acquires four more companies.

I'm sure Scott told me about the relationship between SpringSoft and Novas years ago, but my head is full with facts, so every time someone tells me a new one, one of the old ones "falls off the top of my brain" and evaporates, never to be seen again.

So, I was quite surprised to hear the news a few weeks ago about SpringSoft merging with Novas. And I was even more surprised when chatting with Scott to hear that, in addition to completing this merger, SpringSoft (which is reputed to be the largest EDA company in Asia and the first to be publicly traded) has also acquired four additional EDA companies.

The way Scott described this to me, SpringSoft actually had interests in all of the companies for years, but didn't make a lot of fuss about it and most of us didn't really pay much attention. It's sort of like an iceberg, in which 1/10 is visible above the water and 9/10 is submerged beneath the waves. In this case, Novas and the other companies were the visible entities above the water, while SpringSoft was "running silent, running deep".

But now everything has changed. The iceberg has rolled over and SpringSoft has leapt into the limelight for all to see. In addition to the merger with Novas, SpringSoft has completed acquisitions of Fortelink, a developer of hardware-assisted verification technology; Nanovata, which has developed advanced IC routing technology; and Silicon Canvas, provider of the Laker line of custom IC design solutions. SpringSoft is also in the process of acquiring its distribution partner Novaflow KK, distributor of the Novas, Silicon Canvas, and Fortelink products in Japan. Novaflow will become SpringSoft KK and exclusively sell and service the SpringSoft product line.

SpringSoft's product strategy is to deliver specialized automation technologies that help engineers produce better results in less time as they design and verify complex chips and systems. Its expanded portfolio now includes the Novas verification enhancement solutions (Debussy, Verdi, and Siloti products), as well as the Laker custom IC design solutions. These products, in wide production use today, are known for their application of controllable automation techniques that let engineers avoid tedious, error-prone tasks and focus instead on value-adding activities.

SpringSoft intends to continue developing and harnessing the potential of other innovative technologies, such as those introduced by Fortelink and Nanovata.

SpringSoft's aggregation of unique automation technologies, consolidation of its worldwide support channel, and its strong financial standing enhance the company's ability to deliver specialized EDA solutions with top-rated customer service to engineers around the globe. The combined enterprise, which has a $200M market capitalization and more than 400 employees, serves more than 400 customers, including the leading semiconductor companies in every region of the world.

Scott says that these strategic moves expand SpringSoft's ability to serve its customers around the globe and to offer additional specialized automation solutions that address critical pain points in the development of complex digital, analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits (ICs), application-specific ICs (ASICs), microprocessors, and systems-on chip (SoCs).

For more information, visit www.springsoft.com.