Paul Booth

Cadence Design Systems is an electronic design automation company and has relationships with many of the semiconductor companies around the world, and in particular TSMC, which is the world’s largest. The company provides software, hardware, services and reusable integrated circuit design blocks globally, and also offers functional verification services, including emulation and prototyping hardware.

Cadence serves a wide client base, including mobile telecommunications equipment providers and players in the aerospace and defence, automotive, industrial and healthcare sectors, as well as digital companies that play in hyperscale computing and the digital consumer world. The company can trace its roots back to 1982, when a company called ECAD was first formed, but it wasn’t until a 1988 merger with Solomon Design Automation (founded in 1983), that the company we know as Cadence really came into being. As ECAD was listed on NASDAQ at the time of the merger, it gave Cadence an immediate listing. Today, institutional investors account for 88% of the shareholding, with Black- Rock holding 11% and Vanguard 8.9%. No other investor holds more than 5%.