Cadence to expand formal portfolio with Jasper buy

Cadence Design Systems has reached an agreement with Jasper Design Automation to buy the formal-verification specialist for $170m in cash.

Cadence said its customers are increasingly adopting formal analysis to complement traditional verification methods and will integrate the Jasper technology with its existing Incisive formal tools as part of its system-verification platform. Jasper has developed a series of applications based around its core JasperGold product line with recent updates including an application designed to check for hardware-security holes.

“Jasper’s products are recognized as the technology leaders in formal analysis, targeting complex verification challenges and increasing overall verification productivity,” said Charlie Huang, senior vice president of the system and verification group at Cadence. “Jasper’s formal analysis solutions are used by customers today alongside Cadence’s metric-driven verification flow to form a broad verification solution.”

“Jasper and Cadence serve top-tier customers that will benefit from expanded formal technology and a broader, tightly-integrated verification solution,” said Kathryn Kranen, president and CEO of Jasper. “The verification technologies, when combined, will benefit customers through a comprehensive metric-driven verification approach that unites formal and dynamic techniques, realizing the strength of each and leveraging the integration between them.”

Cadence intends to finance the transaction with available cash and an existing revolving credit facility. Jasper already has $24m in cash reserves. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of fiscal 2014, subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals.