A great analysis from John Cooley of the progress toward an anticompetitive environment for hardware development.
Cheers,
Connie
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Subject: Today is the day EDA started to be a SNPS-CDNS duopoly -- or NOT Today's the big day. April 7 2010 - Carl Icahn starts secretly buying MENT shares. May 27 2010 - Icahn tells the world he's buying MENT shares. June 24 2010 - MENT board limits Icahn ownership to 15% max. Feb 8 2011 - Icahn calls for the breaking up of MENT, proposes selling MENT in parts to SNPS and CDNS. Feb 11 2011 - Icahn nominates 3 hand-picked candidates to directly replace 3 specific MENT board of directors. Feb 22 2011 - Icahn bids $1.9 B (or $17 a share) to buy MENT. Feb 24 2011 - MENT posts a profitible FY2010 with a record $915 M in revenue, and with FY2011 predicted to be even better. March 11 2011 - DeepChip survey in ESNUG 489 shows 88% of 307 MENT users greatly fear a Synopsys-Cadence duopoly forming. March 28 2011 - MENT board of directors rejects Icahn's $1.9 B bid stating that "serious regulatory risks persist". April 25 2011 - MENT publically dismisses Icahn's 3 board candidates. May 2 2011 - ISS recommends 2 out of Carl Icahn's 3 board candidates. Glass Lewis rejects all 3 of Icahn's 3 board candidates. May 3 2011 - Egan-Jones rejects all 3 of Icahn's 3 board candidates. May 5 3011 - MENT issues statement that the prelim Q1 results look good with bookings up 7% over last year's Q1. May 12 2011 - (today) The day of the MENT Annual Stockholder's Meeting. This is the day where the results of the MENT board of directors election comes out. It will go one of three ways: - None of Icahn's candidates are elected. MENT continues on with Wally Rhines at the helm and stays the #2 company in the EDA Big 3. - Two or three of Icahn's candidates are elected to the 8 person MENT board of directors. Internal strife eventually leads MENT to sell off its parts to SNPS and CDNS. Icahn dances the happy dance. - Two or three of Icahn's candidates are elected but they come to realize that MENT is doing pretty damn well on its current course under Wally. Carl Icahn has a public temper tantrum about MENT. Any result that stops a SNPS-CDNS duopoly from forming is good news for all EDA users. Otherwise, mediocre package deal tools, indifferent customer support, and quiet price collusion for chip design SW will be the norm in the not-too-distant future.... and today will be the day it all began. - John Cooley DeepChip.com Holliston, MA
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