Mentor updates shareholder rights rules; Dassault completes Apriso acquisition; head-up displays show up in family vehicles.
By Ed Sperling
Mentor Graphics put into place a second shareholder rights to plan to ward off hostile takeovers. This one increases the threshold for triggering the rights plan to 20% of common stock from the previous 15%, and allows a qualifying offer provision that allows the board to call a special meeting provided the exercise price per right is increased to $90 from $65. It also extends the plan date through June 30, 2015. The statement noted this was not adopted in response to any acquisition proposal. Mentor’s stock is trading in the $19 per share range.
Dassault Systemes completed its acquisition of Apriso, which makes manufacturing software. The purchase price was about $205 million in cash. The deal provides Dassault with real-time visibility and control over business processes in manufacturing plants and across the supply chain.
Automotive head-up displays are making their way into family cars for the first time, opening up a huge market for sophisticated electronics in automobiles. IHS predicts the number of units sold will increase to 9.1 million in 2020, compared with 1.2 million in predominantly high-end vehicles last year—or roughly 2% of the cars. IHS predicts future versions will combine the head-up display with a GPS, so the driver can see a map, turns, and even speed limits and traffic sign information on the windshield. But will they work with polarized lenses? Previous versions do not.
Increasing complexity, disaggregation, and continued feature shrinks add to problem; oversight is scant.
Academia, industry partnerships ramp to entice undergrads into hardware engineering.
Packaging and inspection companies draw funding; 124 startups raise over $2.3 billion.
Pitches continue to decrease, but new tooling and technologies are required.
Buried features and re-entrant geometries drive application-specific metrology solutions.
While terms often are used interchangeably, they are very different technologies with different challenges.
Technology and business issues mean it won’t replace EUV, but photonics, biotech and other markets provide plenty of room for growth.
Commercial chiplet marketplaces are still on the distant horizon, but companies are getting an early start with more limited partnerships.
Existing tools can be used for RISC-V, but they may not be the most effective or efficient. What else is needed?
How customization, complexity, and geopolitical tensions are upending the global status quo.
The industry is gaining ground in understanding how aging affects reliability, but more variables make it harder to fix.
Key pivot and innovation points in semiconductor manufacturing.
Tools become more specific for Si/SiGe stacks, 3D NAND, and bonded wafer pairs.
Leave a Reply