Sources inform “Globes” that Synopsys Inc. (Nasdaq:SNPS) is negotiating to acquire Mplicity Ltd. for $25 million. Mplicity declined to comment on the report.
The Israel Venture Association states that Mplicity has raised $3.7 million to date from StageOne Ventures and AliceLab.
Mplicity was founded in 2000 by CEO Gil Vinitzky and CTO Eran Dagan, both former employees of DSP Group (Nasdaq: DSPG). Mplicity develops chips to improve processor performance. Its product saves silicon space and provides higher performance power in a given processing space. The company has already made initial sales.
AudioCodes (Nasdaq: AUDC; TASE: AUDC) chairman, president, and CEO Shabtai Adlersberg and Dr. Yair Be'ery, chairman of Tel Aviv University's Department of Electrical Engineering - Systems, sit on Mplicity's science advisory board. Be'ery was formerly VP advanced technologies at DSP Group, and is currently CTO at STI Ventures.
Synopsys develops software for chips, System-on-Chip (SoC) solutions, and software for electronic systems. It has a market cap of $2.4 billion. It posted a net profit of $74 million on $1.1 billion in revenue in 2004, and had $579 million in cash at the end of the year.
The connection between Mplicity and Synopsys was probably arranged by Mplicity chairman Avi Fried, the founder and CEO of mSAFE. Fried previously managed the European office of Avanti, which was sold to Synopsis for hundreds of millions of dollars in shares.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on March 13, 2005