Cadence Design Systems, the San Jose supplier of electronic design automation software, will eliminate the equivalent of about 225 full-time employees between now and the end of the year. Based on the 4,900 employees the company reported having at the end of 2008, the layoffs represent about 5 percent of Cadence’s total workforce.
The action is expected to cost Read the rest of this entry »
A week after performing a nearly complete makeover of its executive suite, Cadence Design (Nasdaq: CDNS) said today that “it is reviewing, in conjunction with the company’s independent accountants and legal advisors, the recognition of revenue related to customer contracts signed during the first quarter of 2008.”
Cadence accountants happened to notice that $24 million of contract revenue in its recently completed third quarter was already recognized during its first quarter of the year. Oops. That already-recognized revenue should “have been recognized Read the rest of this entry »
In a letter that began “Dear Wally”, Cadence Design Chief Executive Michael Fister explained to Walden Rhines, his counterpart at Mentor Graphics, why he was forced to go public with their offer to buy Mentor two months after the wooing began, so far to no avail. Read the rest of this entry »
The board at Cadence Design OK’d yet another $500 million stock-repurchase program Wednesday. That would be the third such plan in two years for the San Jose supplier of electronic design software.
One thing is for sure: the $500 million it can begin spending as of, like, IMMEDIATELY, will buy considerably more shares than they did last year. Cadence shares, which traded as high as $24.90 in June, have fallen by more than half since then, closing at $10.86 Wednesday.
Last year Cadence spent $418.6 million buying back its own shares, which was $16 million more than all the cash the company got from operations in 2007. In 2006, Cadence shelled out $494 million to buy back stock, $73 million more than cash from operations.
In the two years since the buybacks began, Cadence insiders have sold 1.6 million shares for $31.3 million at an average share price of $19.88, a couple of bucks above where those shares were trading when buybacks began two years ago.
Any Cadence shareholders out there want to say what you think?
You’d think a man who man who was paid $3.5 million in salary and bonus last year and got millions more worth of stock compensation could afford to pay his own living expenses. Evidently not, at least not Michael Fister, chief executive of Cadence Design Systems since 2004.
The company filed its third amendment to Fister’s 2004 employment agreement with the SEC last week, yet another in a series of filings companies slipped in late in the day Friday before the long holiday weekend.
When he was hired in May 2004, in addition to his $1 million signing bonus, Fister was given a $5,000 per month housing allowance, good for two years, according to his original employment agreement. He was also assured that the company would reimburse his moving costs when he relocated from Oregon, and pay any broker costs associated with buying a house here and/or selling his home in Portland.
Fister’s employment agreement was first changed a year later when his monthly housing
allowance was more than tripled to $17,000 and extended through May 15, 2007. By the end of 2005, he had finally purchased a home in the Bay Area but had yet to sell his previous home. His agreement was amended yet again in May when his $17,000 housing was extended through Dec. 31, 2007.
On Friday, the agreement was changed a third time, ""deleting the date "December 31, 2007′ and inserting in lieu thereof the following: "the earlier of (A) December 31, 2008, or (B) the later closing date of the sale of each of Mr. Fister’s two (2) private residences in Lake Oswego, Oregon”.
Whoa, little doggy. Did we just read ”two (2) residences in Lake Oswego”?! What happened to the the one (1) home in Portland that was cited in his original offer letter? In any case, it looks as if his housing allowance now helps Fister maintain mutliple residences.
As Mel Brooks might say, it’s good to be CEO.
Almost 2.5 years after Moshe Gavrielov sold his company, Verisity of Mountain View to Cadence Design Systems of San Jose for $315 million, he’s heading for open waters. In an 8-K filed Wednesday, Cadence said as of Nov. 30, Gavrielov will no longer be Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Verification Division and will “transition” to something more nebulous until he officially leaves November 2008. He’ll get a $4,000 consulting fee starting next May and running through November 2008.
But apparently, the company wants to keep Gavrielov from going to work from a competitor in the worst way. If he doesn’t quit before next May, he gets $400,000. And if sticks around through next November, he gets another $400,000. Plus, he’ll get some portion of his annual bonus, once those are doled out next year. And he gets accelerated vesting on some unspecified amount of options.
That should pad the cushion he already has built up. Since joining the Cadence family, Gavrielov has sold $9.5 million worth of stock. And when he sold Verisity in 2005, he personally received $5.3 million for his stock.
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