Persistent rumors have it that Cadence Design Systems Inc is interested in acquiring logic synthesis tool company Ambit Design Systems Inc, and would be prepared to pay in the region of $250m for the Santa Clara, California-based company. Cadence is already an investor in four year-old Ambit, which launched its main product line, BuildGates in April 1997. Ambit has established partnerships with LSI Logic, IBM Corp and Mentor Graphics Corp, and its high-end synthesis tools are aimed at the hot area of multimillion-gate, system-on-a-chip design. It competes with Synopsys Inc’s Design Compiler. Synopsys shares declined 12% last Friday to $31.20 as the talk surfaced, and were still languishing at $31.60 at close of market on Wednesday.
