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After going through an acquisition spree of its own, Virage Logic has agreed to be bought by EDA company Synopsys for about $315m in cash. The move follows only a month after Cadence Design Systems’ announcement of its plan to buy memory-IP specialist Denali.

The rationale from Aart de Geus, CEO of Synopsys, in the conference call for the purchase is not all that different from Cadence’s. “Putting together these IP blocks and making sure they work together is essential,” he said.

Like Cadence, Synopsys is expecting an increase in the use of third-party IP by chipmakers. “The trend of IP outsourcing is a massive trend. People are moving towards using commercial IP where they can except where they can add differentiation,” de Geus said, adding that a growing number of companies are realising what they thought was differentiated home-grown IP could be just a millstone. “What companies produce is not necessarily differentiated. Some of the standards they need to work with are so complex, their own people can’t necessarily do a cost-efficient job there. The downturn has helped many executives realise that outsourcing these efforts makes a lot of sense.”

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