Tag Archives: EDA

Altium on the Move

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Altium is moving to Shanghai.

Yes, you read that right. Sydney’s favorite EDA software developer is turning Chinese, relocating its headquarters and R&D operations to the mainland.

That’s the “what.” The “why” is not so clear.

In a press release, Altium spoke of the “Internet of Things,” China’s talent pool and the potential for greater revenue in China.

I’m probably on the Web 15 hours a day (or more, according to my wife), but I’m mot sure what the “Internet of Things” is. I’m guessing it has something to do with Altium’s move toward cloud computing. If so, it doesn’t need Shanghai for that. Server containers, especially ones laden with databases, should be located wherever energy is cheapest and IP secure. Shanghai is an incredibly safe metropolis insofar as physical well-being is concerned. For technology protections, not so much.

As for the Chinese talent pool and revenue potential, that’s all true. But it would be equally true if Altium maintained a token HQ in Sydney. Companies do that all the time.

The distance from Sydney to Shanghai is about 5,000 miles (8,000 km). Having been to both, I can also say they are quite a bit farther apart in terms of lifestyles and cultures. I’m not certain how Nick Martin convinced his top execs to move, but it couldn’t have been easy.

Compared to its rather staid EDA competitors, Altium is more unpredictable and daring (and usually more fun as a result), and usually those moves have paid off. I’m having trouble seeing the advantages here, though.

Market Ambivalence

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The market, the saying goes, is always right.

And if the market is right, Carl Icahn will not be the next owner of Mentor.

Mentor’s board isn’t leaving anything to chance, announcing via an SEC filing today that it would strongly urge shareholders to support its current directors, and reject dissident shareholder Carl Icahn’s alternate slate.

“The Icahn Entities are attempting to replace your directors, who have supported Mentor’s successful strategy, with nominees who have, in our opinion, preconceived notions of what is right for you and who do not have the collective knowledge, skill and experience of your current board of directors.”

But the voice that counts most is that of the shareholders themselves, and market, for now, is not pushing the stock up. Icahn’s tender offer of $17 per share remains on the table, yet Mentor is trading at just under $15 a share. That suggests the market doesn’t believe Icahn’s proposal will be accepted, or that another bidder will come forward.

That’s probably a good read of the tea leaves: Icahn and his ally, Casablanca Capital, together control just over 20% of the outstanding shares. But no other major holder of Mentor stock has publicly called for changes at the EDA company, and for now it looks Wally Rhines and the rest of the management team will hang on. 

On Deals Never Done

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About three years ago, Cadence made a play for EDA competitor Mentor Graphics, an offer the latter never seriously considered. That move, coupled with sharply falling revenues, cost then Cadence CEO Mike Fister his job.

On Friday, the San Jose Mercury-Times reporter Steve Johnson asked current Cadence chief executive Lip-Bu Tan about that merger attempt. While Tan doesn’t specifically address that deal, his words are telling: “In general, industry consolidation is always good.”

It’s a bit frightening to consider a PCB CAD world with one major player taking up the lion’s share of the North America and European markets. (Zuken more than holds its own in its native Japan.) As we learned when AT&T dominated the phone equipment and services market, monopolies (or near monopolies) are the enemy of innovation. Let’s hope it never comes to that.

Idle Speculation

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What is noted corporate raider Carl Icahn up to?
 
With just under 15% of Mentor in his portfolio, Icahn now has turned his attention to an ERP software company called Lawson, of which he has accumulated nearly 11% of its outstanding shares. Does he plan to put the two together somehow?

This Barron’s report suggests at least one market watcher believes the moves aren’t isolated. “He bought at the same time, they’re both software companies and they’re somewhat laggards,” Lon Juricic of StreetInsider.com is quoted as saying. “He’s always known for his activist positions with companies … .”

Well, that seals it, doesn’t it!
 
Everyone and their dog has an ERP company, of course, and while Oracle, SAP, Infor and Microsoft are the domain of the largest enterprises, the door remains open for smaller, niche companies with tools designed for particular markets. But I don’t see that happening here. Manufacturing is just a piece of Lawson’s business; it’s not the whole focus. And almost every company in electronics manufacturing already has some sort of ERP system in place. It’s an expensive proposition to switch. 

And yet, there are some enticing facets to consider.

Lawson, through an acquisition last year, does have cloud computing capability that the industry is trending toward. There is benefit to that capability — see Altium’s recent purchase of Morfik, for example. Also, more EDA vendors are building in purchasing and inventory availability tools to their traditional place and route capabilities. Mentor’s acquisition of Valor aided its ability to track parts from design to placement. Intertwined with a solid ERP system, Mentor could leverage its traditional CAD tools even further.

But there’s the rub, right? At this point, most decent EDA tools talk in some shape or form to the ERP systems. Why reinvent the wheel — and at great risk given this is a (pricey) solution in search of a problem?

I see these moves as singular in nature and unrelated. But it’s still fun to speculate on.

Getting Ready for September

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I thought summer was supposed to be a time when things slowed down, a time when people take vacations and some time to relax. No such thing is happening here at UPMG.

For the last few months, we’ve been busy putting the program together for PCB West. This year we’ve pared the conference down to three days. One of the reasons is we’re moving the Design Excellence Certificate program to an online learning site that we call Printed Circuit University. PCU will launch right around the time of PCB West. As I’ve mentioned before, it will be a resource site for everyone involved in PCB design and will include a certificate program similar to the DEC we’ve held at the PCB Design Conferences for years. Stay tuned for more information on PCU.

During the three-day conference this year, we’ve scheduled almost 40 classes and presentations on subjects from the basics series by Susy Webb to Tom Hausser’s universal routing grid. In between we’re covering EMI, transmission lines, RF design, flex, embedded passives and many other subjects important to designers and engineers. We’ve even added a Tuesday track that covers subjects like counterfeit components and LED boards.

This year exhibit sales are slightly ahead of last year, including every major EDA company in the PCB market, as well as manufacturing and materials suppliers closely involved in the world of PCBs. Yes, these are companies that want your business, but they are also great resources for your design questions.
Registration is now open online, and you can get a look at the exhibitor list and complete program, including the “free” classes on Wednesday, by going to www.pcbwest.com.

Bottom line, PCB West may be only three days this year, but it is chock full of opportunities for everyone. Hope to see you there, and stay in touch.

p.

DesignCon Wrapup

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Overall I was impressed with DesignCon. I still see it primarily as a show for chip and IP designers, but I could agree with anyone who says it is a show for electrical engineers involved in the entire design process. To me, the conference was lacking in practical design topics in the PCB space. Granted, there were only about eight sessions in the “PCB Summit” portion of the program, but aside from the Lee Ritchey, Eric Bogatin and Bruce Archambeault sessions it was pretty thin.

I do have to mention a panel I attended called Science Fiction…Is it Really Fiction? The panel was chaired by Gabe Moretti and included Eric Bogatin, Gentry Lee and Charles Pfeil. It may please you to know that, according to Gentry Lee, by the year 2200 we will have unlocked the keys to immortality and be able to choose how long we live. Something tells me I won’t live long enough to see it.

Exhibitors in the PCB space included laminate suppliers, a couple of board shops as well as EDA companies. The thing that impressed me most was the traffic. The show was busy every time I was on the floor. In fact I did not get to see some people I wanted to see because they were always busy with potential customers. Some may think that exhibitors are always glad to see the press, but customers – even potential customers – always come first.

Even though the PCB portion of the show was very small compared to the total conference and exhibition, overall I give DesignCon a thumbs up, with one exception. Somebody needs to talk to whomever put the show directory together. I thought at first it might just be me, but talking to other people the consensus was that this was the most difficult to use directory we’d ever seen. If there was a rhyme or reason to the way the directory was organized I couldn’t find it.

The best thing about DesignCon for me this year was reconnecting with people I haven’t seen in years. Some were people from the publishing world and others were from the EDA industry. It was good to see and talk to them all.

All in all, DesignCon was worth the trip.