ANSYS (ANSS) annouced that it would acquire Ansoft (ANST) for $832 million on March 31, a 30% premium over ANST’s closing price the previous day. ANST has ~$100 million revenue, and thus the acquisition is done at ~8x sales. It seems to me a rather pricey acquisition, and I question the synergy behind it. But since it’s not my money I’m paying up, it does not really matter to me.
Therefore, in less than two weeks, two EDA companies (SYNP and ANST) will vanish from public trading soon. 10 years ago, there were more than a dozen publicly traded EDA companies, and now I can count them with one hand. If someone had aspired to be a financial analyst covering the EDA industry, it would have turned out to be a really bad career choice.
