Rumors on Synfora, Forte, CatapultC, AutoESL, CoWare, Calypto, EVE

ESL is definitely the hottest "adjacency" to EDA right now...



Take CoWare: Synopsys first bid $50 M for CoWare, then Cadence entered the

fray.  Eventually Synopsys acquired them for $85 M even though Cadence's bid

was higher.  Synopsys grabbed the assets of VAST for less than $20 M and let

go of most of VAST's employees.  The employees got zilch.  At one time VAST

was doing more than $12 M in annual sales but their revenues were declining

rapidly.  Cadence did attempt to come in on that deal but missed again.



Intel's WindRiver division acquired Virtutech reportedly upwards of $40 M.

Why Cadence didn't go after them -- especially given their recent EDA360

Marketing -- is a mystrey.



It is no secret that Synopsys has made past attempts to acquire Forte, but

Forte wants to see some real $.  Since Forte has burnt through a good amount

of money their investors aren't willing to give-up -- yet.  Forte is, of

course, exceptionally strong in Japan so Synopsys would gain an immediate

customer base.  Rumor is Synopsys also tried to acquire AutoESL, but those

guys apparently have strong support from Xilinx, seem to have some momentum

so are in no hurry to take low-ball offers.



But Synopsys has a glaring hole in HLS.  No synthesis.  They have the rest

of the ESL pieces.  Luckily for Synopsys as it happens Synfora is running

out of money; their investors refuse to let this become another disaster

like Monterey and want to cut their losses.  I hear Synopys has an offer

on the table for Synfora and it is south of $10 M.  Synfora has complex

investors as it was spun off from HP Labs many many years ago so the deal

won't be simple as some $ may be owed to HP.  Like Forte, Synfora has taken

in close to $30 M in funding, but unlike Forte they have never had enough

revenue or customers to keep it going.



How all these acquisitions fit into Synopsys' strategy of waiting and

acquiring market-leaders, or the best technology, is not clear.  Maybe you

were dead-on when you said they were the Microsoft of EDA: take no risk,

don't innovate, buy struggling technology companies on the cheap and just

sit on monopoly legacy products/cash-cows!  Of course they had some great

acquisitions in the past with Avanti & EPIC, but since then?  They have

dissolved the FPGA division and rolled it into Systems & IP group under

Joachim Kunkel.  Many of the key Synplicity technologists/developers have

left.  So Synopsys is betting on ASIC and not FPGA as the way to make

money in ESL.



Then there's Calypto.  The only start-up with C-to-RTL formal verification

technology and where Mentor is an investor.  Mentor's Catapult-C is still

looking for the 'break-out' in revenue and there is a rumor that they are

looking at acquiring Calypto to bulk up.  Mentor may also want to lock in

the verification flow -- today Calypto supports multiple HLS Tools but if

Mentor acquires them who knows what may happen?  However, much of Calypto's

revenue actually comes from their RTL-Power product and they too have burnt

through a good amount of $ -- so a deal will only be done if the investors

want to move-on, rather than hold-out.



With that backdrop today's annoucement from Cadence makes sense.  Rumor is

that Synopsys bid $200 M for Denali hoping to lock in the IP market (they

like being a monopoly).  Perhaps Cadence was tired of losing bids, perhaps

they had to make a move in the System/IP space for the whole EDA360 vision

to be realised and prevent Synopsys from executing on Cadence's vision;

whatever the reason they paid up a huge premium to lock it in.  Denali was

doing $40 M in sales.  One un-answered question is did Sanjay Srivastava

negotiate a "keep-the-Denali-DAC-party" clause?



Things should get mighty interesting at DAC for ESL!