Buying again, Sunnyvale, California chip and circuit design software specialist Avant! Corp has a definitive agreement to take over FrontLine Design Automation Inc, a three-year-old privately-held software company specializing in high-performance Hardware Description Language simulation technology. Avant! agreed to pay about 2.2m shares, worth $75m. FrontLine reckons it has developed a complete set of the fastest simulation engines in the industry, running on Windows and Unix platforms. The buy marks Avant’s entry into the integrated circuit logic design automation, and gives FrontLine a broader set of distribution channels. Back in August, Avant! acquired circuit simulation company Anagram Inc on undisclosed terms, and in August signed a definitive agreement to merge with another integrated circuit simulation house, Meta Software Inc.
