The company is seeking a financial reporting manager for the planning and preparation of 10-Ks 10-Qs and 8-Ks — the forms that the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) requires public companies to file. The manager is also expected to stay "current on recent GAAP and SEC accounting pronouncements and disclosure practices."

A spokesperson for Apache declined to comment on the significance of the job posting.

The IPO step would be unusual in that EDA companies have found it difficult to go public over the last decade and more usually pay back their backers — or fail to — by either merging with a peer company or being acquired by one of the three or four largest EDA companies.

No EDA company has gone public since both Magma Design Automation Inc. and Nassda Corp. did so in 2001.

One EDA analyst said he believes the job posting suggests at minimum that Apache wants to give itself the option of going public. Long before a company files for an IPO it needs to get its financials in some semblance of GAAP order, said the analyst, who asked not to be identified because he was speculating.