Electronic design automation company, Summit Design Inc has acquired OrCAD Inc in a deal valued at around $72m. The combination – styled as a merger of equals- will create a company more on a scale with its larger competitors. The two say they will concentrate on the Windows NT marketplace. Summit’s products include graphical data entry and verification software, while OrCAD has concentrated on low-end EDA software for field programmable gate arrays and printed circuit boards. Summit chairman and CEO Larry Gerhard takes up the same position in the combined company, with OrCAD’s chairman, president and CEO becoming president and chief operating officer of the new company. Each outstanding share of OrCAD common stock will be exchanged for 1.05 shares of Summit Design common stock. Both firms are based in Beaverton, Oregon. Summit recently completed the acquisition of Finnish verification software house ProSoft Oy (CI No 3,443).
