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ANSYS Acquires CLKDA!

Daniel Nenni

Daniel Nenni

Admin
Staff member
The EDA world gets even smaller today with the acquisition of CLKDA. The CLK are the founders initials by the way, the DA is design automation. The CEO is Isadore Katz (the K). Founded in 2005, backed by Atlas Ventures and Morgenthaler, they are headquartered in Littleton, MA just outside Boston. The purchase price will probably not be disclosed but from what I have heard it was between $5-6M.

View attachment 19383

We did a history of blog two years ago in case you are interested:

A Brief History of CLKDA: Every Picosecond Counts Below 28nm

CLKDA raised about $10M but has had a difficult time scaling their business. From what I have heard their revenue was less than $2M last year and they were out of cash.

To me this was a strategic acquisition for ANSYS. Not only do they get some nice technology but they get a very experienced group of 10 digital design people that can be leveraged.

About CLK Design Automation
CLK Design Automation is the market and technology leader in timing variation analysis and high accuracy timing solutions for nanometer semiconductor designs. FX is the first transistor model and simulator specifically engineered for digital variance and delay analysis. FX is in production at the most advanced IC geometries at 20nm, 16nm, 14nm, and 10nm with all of the leading foundries.
 
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Nice! CLKDA has great technology - I have blogged their FX capabilities a couple of times. Interesting but not immediately obvious fit with Ansys. Perhaps more capability around power integrity, adding signal integrity (??), maybe power estimation for hard IP? Either way, I anticipate something good coming out of a combination of two strong technologies.
 
Yogesh Chaudhary
It's a very cheep buy for ANSYS...
It looks like the same story that happened with Pebbles acquired by Fitbit!!!
Pebbles was also running short of funds and the amount on which they got sold barely covered their debts..... Moreover Pebbles was far better in the technologies they posses!!!
 
Yes, 3x revenue is a good deal considering the technology and people that came with it. Also, ANSYS has a very good relationship with TSMC so that will help CLKDA quite a bit.


LinkedIn said:
Yogesh Chaudhary
It's a very cheep buy for ANSYS...
It looks like the same story that happened with Pebbles acquired by Fitbit!!!
Pebbles was also running short of funds and the amount on which they got sold barely covered their debts..... Moreover Pebbles was far better in the technologies they posses!!!
Click to expand...
 
Good deal for ANSYS, but not a very good deal for CLKDA's original investors. Purchase price ($5-6 million) is half their previously raised capital (~$10 million).
 
RhodesNathan said:
Good deal for ANSYS, but not a very good deal for CLKDA's original investors. Purchase price ($5-6 million) is half their previously raised capital (~$10 million).
Click to expand...

True but it is very good news for the employees. I would bet that the CAP table was in their favor since the VC's probably left years ago.
 
I would like to know more about VCs who forgo their preferred stocks and let employees enjoy financial benefits when a company they funded is sold for less than what was invested into it.
Anybody seen them?
 
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