Apache Design Solutions, a US-based provider of semiconductor technology in which chip peer Intel’s corporate venturing arm owns a 6.4% stake, has been sold to Ansys for $310m rather than float in the US.
Apache was advised on the trade sale by Germany-based Deutsche Bank, which had also been underwriter on the target’s flotation, and US law firm O’Melveny & Myers. Ansys was advised by BofA Merrill Lynch and US law firm Goodwin Procter.
Intel Capital originally invested in Apache in 2001 as part of a marketing agreement, and owns a 6.4% stake in the business according to a regulatory filing.
Apache had planned to raise $75m in a Nasdaq stock exchange flotation. Apache’s regulatory filing for the initial public offering (IPO) said: "We have agreed, among other things, not to assert our patents against Intel Corporation, and that, under certain circumstances, if we divest or assign any of our patents, then Intel Corporation will be entitled to an irrevocable, worldwide, nonexclusive license to such patents to make or have made Intel Corporation’s products."