Cadence Design Systems – The Leading Computational Software Experts.

Integrates circuits are the most valuable invention of humankind. These ICs have reduced the size of a computer and have helped scientists bring PCs into being and available for every individual. The companies that are developing those ICs and computational software are major contributors to the development of IT, Cadence Designs Systems being one of them.
Cadence Design Systems is an American multinational company, known for its work in designing ICs, systems on chips (SoCs), and printed circuit boards. Apart from that, the company also develops computational software. Known as one of the world’s most innovative companies, Cadence has been there for about 33 years serving its clients with its software, hardware, and IP design services.

About The Company

Cadence Design Systems is a company that thrives on innovation and client satisfaction. It has been serving its clients for the past 33 years and has brought many new technologies to ease out the burden for its clients. From software to hardware and IP design, Cadence has covered it all for its global clients. Apart from designing and developing chips and boards, the company has developed systems for a wide range of clients covering consumers, hyperscale computing, 5G communication, automotive, aerospace, industrial, and health.
Cadence is a public company, having its headquarters based in San Jose, California, United States. The company is home to about 8900 employees and has won six awards in a row for being one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For.

Founding Cadence Design Systems

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. was founded in 1988 but has a history beyond 1988 as it is a result of the merger of two already established companies of that time, Solomon Design Automation (SDA) and ECAD. ECAD came into being in 1982, and James Solomon founded SDA in 1983. ECAD was doing exceptionally well and made sales worth $24 million in 1987. In 1988, ECAD and SDA agreed on a merger, where ECAD acquired SDA for a stock swap of $72 million, forming Cadence Design Systems, an electronic design automation (EDA) company. Joseph Costello, the founder of SDA became the first CEO of the newly founded company.
From the beginning of Cadence Design Systems, it started to expand by acquiring other companies, Gateway Design Automation being the first company that it acquired in 1989. The same year, it also established one of its subsidiaries in Tokyo, Japan. In the next few years, the company made acquisitions like Valid Logic (1991), Comdisco Systems (1993), Cooper & Chyan Technology (1997), Bell Labs Design Automation (1998), Quickturn Design Systems (1998), and OrCAD Systems (1999).
In 1997, Costello left his position as CEO in Cadence. The company established a new subsidiary named Tality Corporation in 2000 and made revenues worth $1.43 billion in 2001. In the next ten years, the company made some more important acquisitions, including IBM‘s DFT tools & group (2002), Celestry Design (2003), Verplex (2003), Neolinear (2004), Verisity (2005), Praesagus (2006), Invarium (2007), Chip Estimate (2008), and Denali Software (2010), etc.
The company started with ECAD’s 197 employees and SDA’s 161 employees, but by 2011, the number of employees for Cadence reached 4900. The company also made revenues worth $1.1 billion in the same year. In 2019, the company was ranked 45 in PEOPLE magazine’s Companies that Care and #5 on the Best Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Companies list by Investor’s Business Daily.
The product range by Cadence includes software, hardware, intellectual properties (IP) used to design chips, systems and printed circuit boards, etc. It produces the products under Custom IC technologies, Digital Implementation & Sign-off Technologies, Verification technologies, Intellectual Property, PCB & Packaging technologies, System Analysis categories.

The CEO

Lip-Bu Tan is the current CEO at Cadence Design Systems. He is an American executive and entrepreneur, having Malaysian roots. He was born on 12 November 1959 in Malaysia and grew up in Singapore. Lip-Bu Tan completed his BSc degree in physics from Nanyang University. Later, he moved to the US to earn an M.S. degree in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), followed by an MBA from the University of San Francisco.
Before joining Cadence as the CEO, he has worked in many well-known companies like EDS. He also founded his venture capital firm named Walden in 1987. Apart from handling his unicorn company, Tan then joined the board of Cadence in 2004. In 2008, he was appointed as the interim co-CEO at Cadence, and the next year, he was named the president and CEO of Cadence Design Systems.