Quickturn Design Systems

Aug 23, 2019

Cadence to Acquire Quickturn Design Dec. 10, 1998 December 10, 1998, Section C, Page 2 Buy Reprints TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Playing the white knight, Cadence Design Systems Inc. agreed today to acquire Quickturn Design Systems Inc., which has been the subject of a hostile takeover bid by the Mentor Graphics Corporation. Cadence said it would swap stock worth $14 a share, a total of $253 million, for Quickturn. Mentor had bid $12.13 a share in cash, but its offer was rebuffed by Quickturn, which has been battling the deal in the Delaware courts. Mentor said today that it was reviewing its options in light of the competing offer. Cadence's shares closed at $29.1875, down 81.25 cents on the New York Stock Exchange. Quickturn's shares closed at $13.8125, up $1.625, and Mentor's shares at $8.75, down $1.25, both in Nasdaq trading. Cadence, based in San Jose, Calif., and Mentor, based in Wilsonville, Ore., are bitter rivals in the market for the electronic automated design software used to fashion new chips. Quickturn is a leader in the related market for specialized computers that can emulate a new chip design before it is crafted in silicon, providing a kind of virtual verification that the circuitry will work as intended. Mentor acquired a small French company with an emulation and verification product last year, but cannot market it in the United States because of a court order stemming from a patent-infringement suit by Quickturn. That suit comes to trial in Oregon in February. Mentor originally proposed the merger as a friendly deal that could put an end to the litigation, but the offer was spurned by Keith R. Lobo, Quickturn's president and chief executive. Advertisement