Seiko Instruments Inc. (Abbreviation SII; President, COO & CFO: Yukihiko Chayama; Head office: 1-8, Mihama-Ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba) and ARGO GRAPHICS INC. (President: Yoshimaro Fujisawa; Head office: 5-14, Hakozakicho, Nihonbashi, Chuo-Ku, Tokyo; Listed on the JASDAQ market) reached a basic agreement with respect to the establishment of a new company tentatively named SX Technologies Inc. on November 18, 2003. The new company will be engaged in EDA business spanning from the development to sales of Semiconductor and Electronic Design Automation-assisted software to its joint management.
The new company will take over the whole EDA business covered by SII, and start business from February 2, 2004.
Since SII initiated sales of the Japan’s first semiconductor CAD system (SX series) in 1982, it has continued providing semiconductor manufacturers and semiconductor design houses with an array of design solutions and has led the van of the Japanese semiconductor market as a sole EDA vendor.
Due to its technological expertise, SII has established reliability in the domestic semiconductor electronic design market and dominated the market of full custom layout tools (based on SII’s survey). SII is now holding 3,500 licenses. In the near future, SII will expand the market further, and keep answering diversified customer’s needs.
ARGO GRAPHICS was established in 1985 as a sales, technical support and consulting company of CAD/CAM/CAE systems targeted at domestic manufactures.
ARGO GRAPHICS has so far contributed to product development acceleration, cost reduction, productivity enhancement and quality improvement, and has achieved the unique growth as a technical solution provider. 3-D CAD called “CATIA,” a core product, is adopted widely in the automobile industry, and highly appraised as an unprecedented solution to optimize all processes from design to production control to maintenance.
In line with this management framework, ARGO GRAPHICS aims to establish a corporate group that provides higher-value added products worldwide. The company also aims to accumulate design solution know-how which allows its applications to be diversely expanded to many fields. Through cooperation, alliance and business partnership with other companies, the company strives for the consolidation and diversification in customer solution-edges.
Missions of the new company and its business tie-up are to enhance the competitiveness of the EDA business and create business synergy. To achieve this, it is critical for both companies to make full use of SII’s development competency in semiconductor CAD systems as well as extensive experience in the semiconductor electronic design field, and of ARGO GRAPHICS’s solution competency with fully-fledged know-how of CAD business management.
SII expects a further expansion in sales by SII’s unique strength in design and salability of LCDs, memory and analog ICs, which are now supporting state-of-the-art and high value added products of customers.
ARGO GRAPHICS expects a further diversification of solutions for customers in the automobile industry by accommodating their needs for design and production of LSIs to be mounted on their own automobiles. At the same time, ARGO GRAPHICS expects a new entry into the field of electronic CAD, including CATIA-based engineering CAD systems newly targeted at customers in the electric/electronic industry.
The new company will take over all the rights, properties, obligations in connection with and arising out of SII’s EDA business, and continue to further fortify product development and customer support competencies on the stabilized management bases.
Fast responsiveness originated from our corporate root as a sole and unique company makes it possible to strengthen alliances, collaborations between universities and businesses as well as with customers, accumulate EDA technology in and out of Japan, and also afford facilities to customers.
Another mission of the new company is to consolidate development competency by newly positioning SII EDA Technologies, Inc. (Abbreviation: SEDAT), which has functioned as a development center of SII’s EDA business, as a subsidiary company of the new company.
SII and ARGO GRAPHICS have owned 34% and 58% of the capital of the new company, respectively. 8% will be owned by new company’s management and employees. Shinichi Ishibashi who was former SII executive and former director of ARGO GRAPHICS will be appointed as new company’s president.
SII and ARGO GRAPHICS will cooperate closely as the management partner in the new company and continuously provide customers with technical support and consultation in order to enhance product development competency and improve the corporate value while bringing into view of listing of stock.
Glossary
EDA: Electronic Design Automation
CAD: Computer Aided Design
CAM: Computer Aided Manufacturing
CAE: Computer Aided Engineering
SX Technologies Inc. (tentative name)
President: Shinichi Ishibashi
Address: Undecided
Business start: February 2004
Capital: 200 million yen
Business Breakdown: Development, sales and consultation of semiconductor integrated circuits and electronic circuit design-assisted software
Number of Employees: 70
Seiko Instruments Inc.
President: Yukihiko Chayama
Address: 1-8, Mihama-Ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba
Capital: 1,000 million yen
Established: September 1937
Business Breakdown: Production of watches, development, production and sales of electronic components, scientific instruments, IT-related devices and systems
Number of Employees: 9,400 (consolidated)(as of June 2003)
Annual Sales: 216,400 million yen (consolidated) (at the end of March 2003)
ARGO GRAPHICS INC.
President: Yoshimaro Fujisawa
Address: 5-14, Hakozakicho, Nihonbashi, Chuo-Ku, Tokyo
Established: February 1985
Capital: 856 million yen
Business Breakdown: Sales of CAD systems, system-establishment/building, technical support and maintenance service
Number of Employees: 292 (consolidated) (as of March 2003)
Annual Sales: 20,500 million yen (consolidated)(at the end of March 2003)
Contact Information
Seiko Instruments Inc.
Corporate Communications Dept.
Yako
Fax:+81-43-211-8011