( ESNUG 506 Item 2 ) -------------------------------------------- [06/27/12]
Subject: 28 readers, then Aart, then Rich Goldman on Aart's retiring rumor
> Aart would be leaving on a high note; at the very top of his game.
>
> And the fact that Aart spoke so much about SNPS history in his SNUG'12
> keynote address plus the "Celebrating 25 years in EDA" being on the
> Synopsys.com home page for months does back the theory that he might be
> leaving. ("Farewell to our Fearless Visionary Leader!")
>
> - from http://www.deepchip.com/items/0506-01.html
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Hi, John, I also noticed the "Visionary Leaders" label above the
Executive Management bios on Synopsys.com. Clever observation!
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I don't know of any long term company that's run with Co-CEOs.
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You're right, John. Aart is at the top of his game these days.
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Your write-up about Aart and Chi-Foon reminded me of that famous
quote by the chewing gum magnate: "When two people in business
always agree, one of them is unnecessary." - William Wrigley, Jr.
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Nothing and no one lasts forever.
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He does seem a bit tired lately.
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I can't blame Aart for retiring. The guy lives in an airplane for
work. He's been to Japan so many times the Japanese government
wants to make him a naturalized Japanese citizen.
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Aart's net worth is close 1/4 of a billion dollars. With that kind
of money he should have left the slums of EDA a long time ago.
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If I were Aart, I'd buy an island in the Pacific and disappear.
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I'll miss him.
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He's had a good run.
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I expect that we are looking at the beginning of a progression where
in 12 months Aart relinquishes his CEO responsibilities and becomes
Chairman. Then after another 12-24 months he simply moves on.
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It wouldn't surprise me if Aart stayed in the Chairman role for while
since it doesn't have day-to-day time requirements. He's put his dues
in and it doesn't surprise me at all.
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All things end eventually.
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The best thing Aart ever did for me was lay me off from Synopsys.
I made a mint selling start-ups back to him.
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Synopsys without Aart will be like Apple without Steve Jobs. The
company will coast for a while, and then slowly run out of steam.
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It's good to mix things up every now and then. I wonder 10 years
from now what companies will be the Top Three or Top Four in EDA.
I'll bet that not one of them yet exists today.
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I heard Aart is giving Mike Fister a $1 million thank-you tip for
driving Cadence into the ground for him.
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Aart's a good guy. I'll miss seeing him at the SNUGs.
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I'm a bit sad. First Costello. Then Gerry. Then Rajeev. Now
Aart. Wally's the only old guard CEO left.
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I'll miss Aart's State of EDA and State of SNPS SNUG speeches.
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Aart's yet another cutthroat businessman. Why should I care?
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I like him as a CEO!
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Grow the #$%* up, Cooley. The interest Aart earns in one year of
his 401K outpaces most engineer's entire life's earnings. Boo hoo.
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Exec's at Aart level stopped working for $$$ years ago. It's about
passion. I felt sorry for Aart once Rajeev was eliminated. What's
left to fight for once you knock out your life's business rival?
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With Lip-Bu Tan the CEO of Cadence, Chi-Foon Chan the CEO of
Synopsys, and Andrew Yang the CEO of Apache, it's clear to me
that high tech moving out of the US and into China.
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Chi-Foon is finally getting the recognition he deserves! Finally!
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It'll be interesting to see what changes Chi-Foon brings to SNPS.
Is Synopsys going to start being all secretive like TSMC is?
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I ran into Aart de Geus and Chi-Foon Chan on the DAC Exhibit floor near
the Apache booth talking to Andrew Yang, the CEO of Apache. I immediately
congratulated Chi-Foon for his promotion to Co-CEO. He deserves it for
all the work he's done to make SNPS successful. We spoke about earlier
SNUG's for a bit. (I've known both Aart and Chi-Foon for 20+ years.)
When I then said "hi" to Aart, I got a sense of mischief brewing in him.
Me-to-Aart: "I'm not going to ask if you're going to be giving
the keynote at the next upcoming SNUG meeting or not.
I know not to ask that..."
Aart-to-me: "Oh, I might give the keynote at the next SNUG... Or
I could be retired by then..."
He was obviously pranking me; but that's the nature of a good prank -- you
can't tell what's the truth and what's the prank! :)
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Later that same day I ran into Rich Goldman, a SNPS Marketing Bigwig, on
the DAC floor. He said he wrote me a letter about the Aart retiring rumor:
Hi, John,
Don't worry about missing Aart. He's made it very clear that he's not
going anywhere, and is in fact dedicated to Synopsys for years to come.
In our 2Q12 SNPS analyst call:
Sterling Auty of JP Morgan asks Aart "Is this the first step in the
transition for yourself out of the CEO position and onto something else?"
Aart replies: "I can answer it head on. No, it is not a change in
status or planning for a changing in status for me. On the contrary,
it is a recognition of a fabulously good working relationship, but even
better than that it is also the signing up for now really working on
the next phase of the growth of the company."
- Rich Goldman,
VP Corporate Marketing & Strategic Alliances
Synopsys, Inc.
Rich wanted his letter published right away with a special email blast to
all 30,000 DeepChip subscribers. I told Rich that this was DAC and that
a million other EDA-related things were going on right now which might take
precedence over rumors on Aart's retirement or not. But I did say I'd put
it in the next DeepChip email bast -- and up there it is.
  
I've since come to learn as a weird sort of public show of loyalty to his
boss, Aart, Rich Goldman had posted 33 Twitter tweets over the past 27 days
about exactly when I'd publish his letter on DeepChip. (I never knew that
Rich had this Obsessive-Compulsive side to him!)
- John Cooley
DeepChip.com Holliston, MA
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