Tackling EDA’s Broken Business Model: Blaze DFM CEO Jacob Jacobsson (Part 3)

SM: What was your next move after Xilinx? JJ: I was eventually recruited to run a small fabless semiconductor company in the RFID space down in San Diego. My family did not follow me down there, so for a total of five years I was commuting.

Tackling EDA’s Broken Business Model: Blaze DFM CEO Jacob Jacobsson (Part 2)

SM: You have seen , I have been endlessly beating on Cadence and Synopsys on this issue. What has created this dynamic? Why is EDA so undervalued in general? JJ: When you sell software the cost of goods is almost zero. When I was working with semiconductors, we could always point back and say there

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Tackling EDA’s Broken Business Model: Blaze DFM CEO Jacob Jacobsson (Part 1)

There is a common phrase, ‘don’t bite the hand that feeds you’. Business, high tech business in particular, has a series of interdependencies which have evolved into an ecosystem. This is particularly apparent in EDA, where Intel and AMD rely on the tools provided by EDA vendors to design a chip.

Forbes Column 08: How Chip Toolmakers Can Survive

My Forbes column on the Cadence-Mentor deal is here: How Chip Toolmakers Can Survive. It’s a controversial piece that challenges the semiconductor companies to do their part. Have a look, and feel free to discuss, either here or at Forbes. A comprehensive discussion has also emerged with the my previous post, Cadence Takes a Page

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Cadence Takes a Page Out of Microsoft’s Playbook

With the Microsoft-Yahoo! drama fresh on everyone’s mind, Mike Fister and the Cadence board have finally done something that shows a bit of boldness, some imagination, and possibly some courage. Cadence has made a hostile takeover bid for Mentor Graphics.

Cadence Languishes On

Cadence, (Nasdaq: CDNS) continued to be bothered with the woes of the EDA industry. Q1 results reported last week saw the quarter’s revenue drop by 21% annually and and 37% sequentially to $287 million. However, the revenue still beat market expectations of $285 million. EPS for Q1 met analyst expectation of $0.04, recording a fall

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Trend Radar 2008: Miniaturization

Our wish list for what features we want on the convergence device keeps getting longer, while form factor keeps getting smaller. Familiar movie. Unfamiliar outcome.

Will Magma Die on the Vine?

Magma Design Automation, Inc. (LAVA) provides electronic design automation software products and related services, and is our fourth and final company in the EDA review. In February 2007 I reviewed Magma and noted they were a potential acquisition target given their legal problems in a losing patent fight with Synopsys. I pondered on the possibility

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