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Synopsys’s plans to buy Ansys for $35B falls on UK regulatory radar

Paul Sawers

5:45 AM PDT • August 12, 2024

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Close-up of sign with logo at Silicon Valley headquarters of technology company Synopsys, Mountain View, California.

Image Credits: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

The U.K. antitrust regulator has confirmed that it’s carrying out an early-stage inquiry into Synopsys‘s plans to buy Ansys.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has opened an “invitation to comment,” meaning any stakeholders or interested parties can file their objections to the transaction, after which the regulator will decide whether to progress the investigation to a formal merger inquiry. The CMA hasn’t provided any deadline for comment submissions.

Chip design software maker Synopsys revealed back in January its plans to acquire Ansys, a simulation software developer that helps engineers model and analyze the physical behavior of products (e.g. chips) to evaluate their real-world performance, in a deal worth $35 billion.

The coming together of these companies would create a comprehensive chip design and simulation powerhouse, one that’s capable of creating more efficient development processes by lowering the fail-rate during the design process. However, such a merger could create a dominant player spanning all facets of the chip design process, thus stifling competitors that don’t offer such a combination.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is already looking at the transaction, though has yet to confirm any further action, and reports suggest that competitors and customers of Synopsys and Ansys are pressuring the European Commission (EC) to take action.

China’s SAMR is also expected to scrutinize the deal — Synopsys has longstanding ties to China, where it has seen significant success even with Huawei sanctions in place, and Ansys too has a notable presence in China.

With the CMA now weighing in, it seems that Synopsys and Ansys — both publicly-traded companies with a combined market cap of $100 billion — might have a long way to go before this deal reaches the finish line.

Companies say monetization opportunities for Universal Music artists and songwriters have been expanded with short-form video and licensed music for WhatsApp

Universal Music Group artists will see their songs made available on WhatsApp for the first time, after the record label struck a new licensing deal with Meta Platforms.

The world’s largest music company has signed an expanded multi-year global agreement that allows music from its artists and songwriters to be used and shared across Meta’s global network of platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Horizon, Threads and WhatsApp. The group’s artists include Taylor Swift, Adele and Elton John.

The two companies initially penned a deal in 2017 that saw Universal Music license its recorded music and music publishing catalogs across Facebook’s platforms, which mainly covered songs used in the background of videos and “other social experiences” on Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and Oculus.

That deal paved the way for a new revenue stream for the industry, as user-generated videos hadn’t before generated income for artists and relied on burdensome legal proceedings to have unlicensed content removed.

With Monday’s new agreement, the companies said monetization opportunities for Universal Music artists and songwriters have been expanded with short-form video and licensed music for WhatsApp.

“The new agreement reflects the two companies’ shared commitment to protecting human creators and artistry, including ensuring that artists and songwriters are compensated fairly,” the companies said in a joint statement.

They will also continue to work together to address the growing threat from unlicensed AI-generated content that could affect artists and songwriters, they said.

The deal follows an agreement earlier this year with TikTok that saw Universal Music Group artists and their songs return to the popular video-sharing app after months of disagreements over pay.

Meta has similar licensing agreements with publishers such as Warner Music Group and independent music licensing agency Merlin.

US sends submarine to Middle East as fears grow of reprisal against Israel

Aircraft carrier also heads to region as Washington assesses threat of strike on its ally by Iran or proxy forces

The US is sending a guided missile submarine to the Middle East, as it bolsters its regional presence amid fears Iran and its proxies are poised to retaliate against Israel for the killing of senior Hamas and Hizbollah figures.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin has also ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, which is equipped with F-35 fighter jets, to “accelerate its transit to the region” in light of the “escalating tensions”.

“Secretary Austin reiterated the United States’ commitment to take every possible step to defend Israel,” the Pentagon said in a statement on Sunday, which it issued after Austin had spoken to his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant.

Gallant’s office said on Monday that he and Austin had discussed the “interoperability” of Israeli and US forces in the region. He warned on Sunday that “whoever harms us in a way that has not been done in the past, is likely to be hit in a way that hasn’t been done in the past”.

“I hope that they will think this through and won’t get to a point where they will force us to cause significant damage and increase the chances of war breaking out on additional fronts. We do not want this, but we must be prepared,” he said.

Iran has been vowing to “punish” Israel since Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran last month, hours after he attended the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian.

Meanwhile, Hizbollah, has pledged to retaliate against Israel for its killing a day earlier of Fuad Shukr — one of the Lebanese militant group’s most senior commanders — in response to a suspected Hizbollah missile strike that killed 12 youngsters on a football pitch in the occupied Golan Heights.

While Israel has acknowledged that it was behind Shukr’s killing, it has neither confirmed nor denied that it killed Haniyeh, in line with its long-standing policy of not commenting on operations in Iran.

But both Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel for Haniyeh’s assassination, which has fuelled fears that the region could be sliding towards an all-out war, and left diplomats from the US and other countries working frantically to de-escalate the situation.

The leaders of France, Germany and the UK called on Iran and its allies “to refrain from attacks that would further escalate regional tensions”.

“No country or nation stands to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East,” the leaders said in a joint statement on Monday.

The statement, signed by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, called for an immediate ceasefire in the 10-month war between Israel and Hamas, and for the Palestinian militant group to release the hostages it still holds in the wake of its October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the hostilities.

US President Joe Biden and the leaders of Qatar and Egypt last week said mediators were making an urgent push to resume stalled hostage talks on Thursday in the hope of securing a ceasefire and preventing a further escalation.

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