Silicon Dimensions Inc. announced that the company has opened a new office in San Jose. Per the Press Release: "The San Jose office represents the latest step in Silicon Dimensions’ expansion strategy [and] houses the company’s expanded sales and application engineering staff. The office will serve as a hub for West Coast customers and lend service support to the company’s headquarters in Marlborough, Massachusetts."

Synplicity Inc. has named Gary Meyers to be President and COO, a newly created role at the company. Meyers will manage worldwide sales and be responsible for the company’s marketing and engineering functions. He will continue to report to CEO Bernie Aronson. Meyers has been Vice President for Worldwide Sales at Synplicity for going on 5 years. Previously, he was at LSI Logic Corp., serving in various managerial roles, and prior to LSI was an ASIC designer at TRW (now Northrop Grumman). Meyers has an MBA from UCLA and a BSEE from the University of Maryland.

Magma Design Automation Inc. announced that Pete Teshima has been named Vice President of Finance. Teshima now reports to Greg Walker, Magma CFO and Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration. The company also announced that Teshima has 24+ years of experience in EDA and other technology industries, has served in financial management and operational roles, and has performed numerous merger and acquisition transactions. Most recently, he was as COO for Hier Design Automation, which was of course purchased earlier this year, and also served as CFO at InTime Software, Cyclone Commerce, Avant! Corp., InterHDL and High Level Design Systems. Teshima has a BS in Commerce from Santa Clara University. At this point, it sounds like he could probably be serving as an adjunct professor in the subject.

Sagantanc announced that Hillel Ofek has been named as the company's President and COO. Ofek will report to H.R. Johnson, Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of the company. Before joining Sagantec, Ofek managed his own consulting company. He currently holds several advisory and board of director posts. Previously, he was General Director of Software Products at Actel, a Vice President at Dynachip, a Director at Amdahl, and an Executive at Silvar Lisco.

Details from the company: For the past 25 years, Ofek has been active in computer-related professional organizations and industry-standards projects. He is a past member of the IEEE/Computer Society Governing Board and a member of the ACM and IFIP's Working Group 10.5. Ofek was General Chairman of DAC and Chairman of several of its Executive Committees, including Finance and Program. He participated in the pioneering stage of VHDL development, served as President of the VHDL International Consortium, and as a member of the VIUF Advisory Board. Ofek began his career by logging in 20 years at IBM in various capacities. He has an MSEE from New York University and a BSEE from Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.

MatrixOne completed the acquisition on Synchronicity Software, Inc., a move first announced in June at DAC2004. Per the Press Release: "The combination of MatrixOne and Synchronicity provides a breakthrough solution for any company that has high-value electronic content in their products." That's a pretty big bucket.

Mentor Graphics Corp. announced it has acquired Palmchip Corp.'s Parallel and Serial ATA IP business, which the company says "extends Mentor's position as the leading provider of communication standards-based IP by adding Palmchip's industry-leading ATA IP to its broad portfolio of standards-certified cores, and increases its IP offerings for the growing storage market."

Mike Kaskowitz, General Manager of the IP Division at Mentor Graphics, is quoted in the Press Release: "When we look to augment our IP portfolio, we look to those vendors that uphold the same high standards we do. This acquisition enables us to offer our customers and Palmchip's IP customer base a broader selection of certified cores for the storage market that provide them with a smooth transition as their design needs evolve."

* Warren East, CEO of ARM will continue as CEO of the combined companies, with Lucio Lanza, Chairman of Artisan, and Mark Templeton, President and CEO of Artisan, joining the Board of Directors of ARM as a non-executive director and an executive director, respectively, on completion of the transaction. Mark Templeton is expected to enter into a service contract with the company with effect from completion of the transaction.

* The completion of the transaction is expected to occur in the fourth quarter of 2004 and is subject to ARM and Artisan stockholder and regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

* Under the terms of the agreement, Artisan stockholders will receive $9.60 in cash and 4.41 ARM ADSs for each outstanding Artisan share. Based on closing prices for ARM's ADSs as of August 20, 2004, the implied value is $33.89 per Artisan share, representing an aggregate consideration of approximately $913 million. Following completion of the transaction, on a fully diluted basis, Artisan stockholders will own approximately 26% of the combined company. The cash portion of the consideration will be funded using ARM's existing cash resources.

* As of June 30, 2004, under U.S. GAAP, Artisan had revenues and profits after taxes in the previous 12 months of $82.9 million and $17.3 million, respectively, and had net asset value of $205.1 million, of which $140.4 million was cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. For the most recent fiscal year ended September 30, 2003, Artisan had revenues and profits after taxes of $68.5 million and $7.3 million, respectively, under U.S. GAAP.

* ARM has agreed to pay a break-up fee to Artisan of approximately $18 million payable upon certain termination events under the transaction agreement. Alternatively, Artisan has agreed to pay a break-up fee to ARM of approximately $31 million or $18 million, depending on the nature of the termination event, payable under the transaction agreement upon certain termination events.

Who acquired Hier Design and when?

Besides his responsibilities at Mentor Graphics, what other 'hat' does Mike Kaskowitz wear?

What recent high-profile acquisition gone bad makes the last bit the best bit in the ARM/Artisan press release?

According to the ARM/Artisan Press Release, to whom shall we attribute each of the following quotes? Your choices include:

a) Mark Templeton, President and CEO of Artisan
b) Warren East, CEO of ARM
c) Lucio Lanza, Chairman of the Board of Artisan
d) Sir Robin Saxby, Chairman of ARM

1) "Artisan represents an excellent strategic fit with our vision to become the Architecture for the Digital World. With its focus on the leading manufacturers in the semiconductor industry and a broad range of OEM design teams, Artisan has a proven sales channel, which will be highly complementary with the ARM sales channel. The combined entity will be able to reach more customers with a broader product portfolio to better serve our combined user community."

2) "As system design complexity increases in deeper sub-micron technologies, so does the need for stronger links between all aspects of SoC development from library elements to advanced microprocessor IP and software. Combining forces with Artisan will enrich and expand our total IP offering. Furthermore, the combination is expected to provide greater access to ARM and Artisan technologies, delivering increased value to both companies' customers and creating a new catalyst for innovation in the industry. Delivering enhanced IP where the total system is further optimized for low power and high performance will assist our customers to create new and exciting digital products. We will benefit greatly from the insights and experience of the talented Artisan professionals joining our team."

3) "The combination of ARM and Artisan signals a new phase in the industry by meeting the increasingly important system design challenge of providing customers with a coherent IP offering, from architecture to silicon implementation," said "Putting complementary teams of designers together in one company working on software, system IP and physical IP will enable us to provide a higher level of value to our combined customers."

4) "The strategic vision of this transaction is compelling. By joining forces with ARM, we are furthering our goal to be the IP partner of choice in the semiconductor industry. Combined with ARM, we will be better positioned to invest in new products and promote the adoption of Artisan's products to a broader range of customers."

1) What is Mark Templeton's middle initial?

2) What is Lucio Lanza's middle initial?

How exactly does one pronounce "Avant!" ... ?