Category Archives: finance

Apple is the Most Valuable Company in the World

Posted on August 9, 2011 by paulmcl

I wrote about six months ago about how Apple was the most valuable tech company in the world. At the time Exxon was still significantly ahead and it seemed unlikely that Apple would catch them quickly. But today it happened. … Continue reading →

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Carl Icahn

Posted on March 30, 2011 by paulmcl

I ran into Wally Rhines at a Mentor press event yesterday. As I was leaving he took time to tell me how great the EDAgraffiti book is. “The best book on the EDA industry.” Actually, I think it is about … Continue reading →

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EDA and Wall Street

Posted on February 11, 2011 by paulmcl

Good news in a way: Merrill Lynch (or Bank of America Merrill Lynch as I suppose we have to get used to calling them) have re-started coverage of EDA with a 20 page report on the industry, much of which … Continue reading →

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Spending money effectively

Posted on September 21, 2009 by paulmcl

People die because they run out of oxygen. It doesn’t matter what the reason is—trauma, cancer, heart attack—lack of oxygen is what finally kills us. In the same way, startups die because they run out of cash. It doesn’t matter … Continue reading →

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Licensed to bill

Posted on June 29, 2009 by paulmcl

As I’ve said before, in every sizeable EDA company that I’ve worked, a huge percentage, 30-50%, of all calls to the support hotline are to do with license keys. Why is this so complicated? Are EDA software engineers incompetent? Most … Continue reading →

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Royalties

Posted on May 6, 2009 by paulmcl

Venture capitalists love royalties. They love royalties because they think that they might get an unexpected upside since they are hoping that a customer, in effect, signs up for a royalty and sells far more of their product than they … Continue reading →

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EDA startups: channel costs $6M

Posted on April 20, 2009 by paulmcl

I’ve put together several business plans for EDA startups once the product is ready for market. One question is always how much money needs to be raised. The answer always turns out to be about $6M. When you put together … Continue reading →

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EDA startups: seven million to takeoff

Posted on April 9, 2009 by paulmcl

A startup EDA company needs about $7M in bookings to become self-sustaining and not require another round of external funding. Curiously, it doesn’t seem to depend all that much on the product provided there is really a market out there, … Continue reading →

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Technology of SOX

Posted on April 2, 2009 by paulmcl

Sarbanes-Oxley, often abbreviated to SOX, is a set of accounting rules that were introduced by congress in response to the accounting scandals of Enron, Worldcom and their like during the dotcom boom. It is a mixture of different regulations, some … Continue reading →

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Crushing fixed costs

Posted on March 26, 2009 by paulmcl

There is a trend that the current downturn is only going to accelerate: to turn fixed costs into variable costs. Often this is what is behind outsourcing of some capability. Sometimes it is driven purely by either cost (let’s do … Continue reading →

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