EDACafe Editorial 
Peggy Aycinena
Peggy Aycinena is a contributing editor for EDACafe.Com Mentor acquires Oasys: Hitting a Home Run with SynthesisDecember 18th, 2013 by Peggy Aycinena
Who says the last week before the holidays needs to be dull: Mentor Graphics has just announced it’s acquiring Oasys Design Systems. * The Money: “Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.” There’s a surprise. * The Technology: “Oasys RealTime is a next-generation RTL physical synthesis technology [that] enables faster turnaround times and the capacity to synthesize the entire top level of the largest designs, all while being physically aware for better correlation with physical design. Its ‘placement first’ synthesis methodology and integrated RTL floorplanning capability enable physical backend issues to be analyzed and addressed at RTL stages before hand-off to the back-end groups for physical design implementation.” Turns out the conversation [read “innovation”] in EDA around synthesis, P&R and whack-a-mole is still underway. * Mentor’s Interest in Synthesis: “This acquisition aligns with Mentor’s goal to deliver a best-in-class digital implementation platform to address the performance, power and area challenges at advanced nodes.” Interesting. * The Investors: “The company is funded by Intel Capital, Xilinx Ventures, and several private investors. The first product from Oasys, RealTime Designer, was launched in 2009 and is being used successfully by many of the top semiconductor vendors worldwide.” It’s always the top semiconductor vendors worldwide who make or break the deal. * The Winners: “Oasys is a privately held company that was founded in 2004 by a team of leading RTL synthesis developers.” They include: Scott Seaton, Paul van Besouw, Johnson Limqueco and Harm Arts. The BoD also includes Joe Costello, Larry Yoshida, Gary Meyers and Rod Browning. Paul van Besouw is quoted in the Press Release: “We are excited to be a part of Mentor Graphics and look forward to delivering the next-generation RTL synthesis solution to the market.” Of course he is, and no doubt Mentor’s excited to have Oasys in the family. * Despite claims to the contrary, getting acquired has nothing to do with FUD, but has everything to do with hitting a home run, paying off the backers and, for the guys who started the company, buying that shiny new ___________ [fill in the blank] to celebrate. Happy Holidays…
Interesting that Gary Meyers served as President & CEO of Synplicity, was a VP/GM at Synopsys after Synplicity was acquired, and was also on the Board of Directors at Mentor Graphics following the power struggle with Carl Icahn. Meyers no longer serves on Mentor’s BoD, but by serving on Oasys’ board, he’s been hanging out a lot with a bunch of Cadence alum. It’s probably a safe bet that what [and who] Meyers doesn’t know about EDA and M&A ain’t worth knowing. ****************** Tags: Gary Meyers, Harm Arts, Intel Capital, Joe Costello, Johnson Limqueco, Larry Yoshida, Mentor Graphics, Oasys Design Systems, Oasys RealTime, Paul van Besouw, Rod Browning, Scott Seaton, Xilinx Ventures 2 Responses to “Mentor acquires Oasys: Hitting a Home Run with Synthesis” |
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Peggy,
According to the newspaper in Portland OR, Mentor did not buy Oasys but bought the synthesis design group. I have no idea if you are right or if the paper is right and I have no idea if there is anything left of Oasys. But I think the distinction is significant if it is true.
Ian
Ian — It was my read of the situation that the core of the company’s technology has been sold to Mentor. If Oasys continues to pursue other technologies external to Mentor, then the distinction is very significant and my conclusion is incorrect.
– Peggy