Looking to reduce costs and improve its drab financial performance, Tektronix Inc, Beaverton, Oregon, is pulling out of the computer-aided engineering systems market and selling some computer-aided engineering technologies and the Computer-Aided Software Engineering Division to Mentor Graphics Corp for a knock-down $5m in cash. Both companies will co-operate to provide an integrated set of design through to testing products. Tektronix reckons that the move signifies an important step toward improved profitability and revenue growth and that its customers will benefit from an integrated design and test solution delivered by acknowledged leaders in both fields. Current Tektronix CAE Systems Division customers will be migrated to comparable products of Mentor Graphics and Tektronix will designate Mentor and its Context Corp subsidiary as the preferred suppliers of electronic design automation and documentation management tools to Tektronix – and Mentor looks for a positive financial impact from the resulting increase in both system and service sales. Users of Tektronix computer aided engineering software on Apollo Computers workstations will be offered a free ride over to the Mentor Graphics tools on their existing hardware – Mentor is Apollo’s biggest OEM customer – and customers using other workstations will receive the aggressive Apollo upgrade discounts from Mentor Graphics. To ensure smooth migration customers, Mentor Graphics will hire some of Tektronix’ CAE field applications engineers and Tek is developing a database migration path for libraries, customer schematics, layout designs and so forth. It will also transfer some engineering staff and the rights to key CAE technologies including sea-of-gates placement and routing algorithms, microwave design and synthesis technology and analogue simulation technology to Mentor. Mentor is taking the Computer-Aided Software Engineering products, technology and personnel and promises to assume support of the customer base and continue to develop the family.
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