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Electronics design for a wider market: Renesas acquires Altium to create the complete open cloud platform for EDA

MANUFACTURES DATA CHIPS for TOYOTA and NISSAN. It is hardly a coincidence that electronics, PCB and IC companies within the EDA (Electronic Design Automation) sphere are making several large corporate purchases right now. The trend over time is crystal clear: Chip manufacturing has become one of the world's most critical technologies over the past decade. The EDA market is actually by far the largest among the sub-PLM segments with a 22.5 percent market share of total PLM investments in 2022. Greater than both cPDm (PDM), 13.9 percent, and Simulation & Analysis, also 13.9 percent. In total, according to analyst CIMdata, companies around the world spent close to 15 billion dollars on the purchase of EDA software and services this year, a figure that is expected to continue to increase strongly in the coming years.
An interesting consequence is that market players are taking positions for a future that requires added capabilities, easier handling and relevance to wider customer bases. The needs are based, among other things, on that products are increasingly equipped with electronics and need more deeply integrated digital solutions to secure functions in ever earlier design stages.
In a short time frame, two major players in EDA, electronics and chip development bought prominent software developers. The perspective looks a little different:
• American Synopsys acquired the market leader in Simulation & Analysis, Ansys. Synopsys focuses on silicon design, verification, intellectual property, software security and quality to the semiconductor design and manufacturing industry.
• Just over a week ago the next big deal came where the Japanese semiconductor manufacturer Renesas buys EDA software developer Altium for $5.91 billion. Renesas thus succeeded in what Autodesk failed to do two and a half years ago. The bid then was 3.9 billion dollars, which obviously was too low.
The backdrop is that Renesas, which manufacturs chips for Toyota and Nissan, already in June announced that it would standardize its entire PCB design (Printed Circuit Boards) on Altium's 365 cloud-based platform . But Renesas has also previously collaborated with Altium, among other things, by publishing all its ECAD libraries on Altium's Public Vault.
Together, the companies now aim to build, under a common vision, a new integrated and open platform for electronics system design and life cycle management, which unites these steps at a system level. The acquisition thus brings together Altium's capabilities on the cloud platform with Renesa's strong portfolio of embedded solutions, which combine high-performance processors and sharp connectivity. An important aspect is also the third-party view: The combination aims to enable integration with third-party vendors across the ecosystem to perform all electronic design steps seamlessly in the cloud.
”With our vision to make electronics design accessible to the wider market to enable more innovation through a cloud-based platform, the combination of Renesas and Altium becomes a perfect foundation,” said Hidetoshi Shibata, CEO of Renesas.

Hidetoshi Shibata states in a press release that ”the electronics system design and lifecycle management platform will deliver integration and standardization of various electronic design data and functions and improved component lifecycle management, while enabling seamless digital iteration of design processes to increase overall productivity.” He emphasizes, quite correctly, the values with this; such as significantly faster innovation and lower entry barriers for system designers.

The Renesas CEO further says that adding Altium will make it possible to deliver an integrated and open development platform, making it easier for companies of all sizes and industries to build and scale their systems.
”We look forward to working with Altium’s talented team as we continue to invest and drive our combined platform to the next level of value for our customers,” said Shibata.

From Altium’s side, the CEO, Aram Mirkazemi, also points to how you see the bigger picture developing, as a good reason for the deal:
”I am convinced that electronics is the single most critical industry for building a smart and sustainable world,” he says and adds: ”Renesa’s visionary leadership and commitment to making electronics accessible to everyone resonates well with Altium’s vision of industry transformation. Having worked closely with Renesas as a partner for nearly two years, we are excited to be part of the Renesas team as we continue to successfully execute and grow.”

Altium has 61,000 subscriptions globally
The financial parts of the purchase are based on Renesas financing the $5.91 billion needed through bank loans and cash. It is expected to take place in the second half of 2024, subject to approval by Altium shareholders and the Australian court, regulatory approvals and satisfaction of other typical closing conditions. The deal has been unanimously approved by both Renesa’s and Altium’s boards.

In a Zoom webinar about the deal, Shibata said Altium has over 61,000 global subscriptions and achieved 20 percent year-over-year growth in recent years. He noted that Altium currently has over 850 employees and that the company will continue to operate independently as a consolidated subsidiary of Renesas.

Altium’s Aram Mirkazemi will also continue to lead the Altium team.

Deeper integration expected
It was in June 2023 that Renesas chose to standardize the development of all printed circuit board (PCB) designs on Altium’s 365 cloud platform. Last year, Renesas also published all of its products’ ECAD libraries on the Altium Public Vault. This step allowed customers to use features on Altium 365 to select Renesas parts from the Altium library.

PCB engineers working with Altium’s flagship product, Altium Designer, can expect Renesas to further integrate Altium’s cloud platform capabilities with Renesas’ on-premise systems.

On ENGINEERING.com, it is noted that Altium’s latest feature launch was this January around a BOM (Bill of Materials) portal in Altium 365. This is a dashboard that should make it easier for engineering and purchasing teams to work together to monitor BOMs in production. The tool provides insights into parts supply issues with real-time component information from Octopart, S&P Global and SiliconExpert.

Going forward, PCB engineers using Altium software can expect to see Renesas offer more tools to improve the engineer’s user experience.

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