Cadence Design Systems agreed in April 2025 to buy Arm’s Artisan foundation intellectual-property (IP) business, and announced the completed acquisition on August 27, 2025. Cadence did not disclose a price in April. Its FY2025 Form 10-K later reported aggregate purchase consideration of $128.5 million (the allocation table totals $128.491 million).
What Cadence acquired
The transaction covered Arm’s Artisan foundation IP business. Cadence described the assets as:
- Standard-cell libraries
- Memory compilers
- General-purpose input/output (GPIO) IP
Arm had optimized these building blocks for advanced process nodes at leading foundries. They are foundational physical-design components used when developing systems-on-chip (SoCs), rather than finished chips or consumer products.
Cadence’s April 16, 2025 announcement described an asset purchase agreement and a concurrent technology-license agreement to be signed at closing, subject to existing rights. The public materials do not establish current licensing terms, which foundries or process nodes offer each item, or a detailed integration timetable.
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Why Cadence said it wanted the business
Cadence presented Artisan as an expansion of its design-IP portfolio into foundation IP. The company said the addition would complement offerings such as protocol and interface IP, memory-interface IP and SerDes IP, and would increase its presence in SoC designs.
Cadence linked the move to its stated customer goals of reaching market sooner and balancing cost, power and performance. Those are the buyer’s strategic objectives, not independently measured results from the acquisition.
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Cadence also said the incoming engineering team could speed development of related and new IP products. Boyd Phelps, senior vice president and general manager of Cadence’s Silicon Solutions Group, said the expected addition would let Cadence “enter the foundation IP market” and pursue new growth opportunities.
Announcement, closing and filing dates
| Date | What happened | What was disclosed |
|---|---|---|
| April 16, 2025 | Cadence announced a definitive agreement with Arm. | The deal was expected to close in the third quarter of 2025, subject to regulatory approvals and customary conditions. The purchase price was not disclosed. |
| August 26, 2025 | Acquisition date recorded in Cadence’s Form 10-K; Arm’s annual report identifies the same date for the sale. | This is the accounting and seller-reported transaction date. |
| August 27, 2025 | Cadence announced that the acquisition had been completed. | The completion announcement described the expanded design-IP portfolio. |
| FY2025 Form 10-K | Cadence reported the purchase accounting. | Aggregate consideration was $128.5 million; the detailed allocation table totals $128.491 million. |
How much did Cadence pay?
The best disclosed figure is $128.5 million in aggregate purchase consideration, reported by Cadence after closing in its FY2025 Form 10-K. The filing’s allocation table gives a more precise total of $128.491 million.
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That figure should not be attributed to the April announcement: Cadence said the price was undisclosed when it announced the agreement. The later filing is what supplied the consideration figure.
Why Arm’s $131 million gain is a different number
Arm’s annual report for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2026, records a $131 million pretax gain on the divestiture. A seller’s gain reflects Arm’s accounting result after considering the assets’ carrying value and transaction accounting; it is not the amount Cadence reported as purchase consideration. The two figures therefore should not be used interchangeably.
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What the public record does—and does not—show
Established by the announcements and filings
- The assets were Artisan standard-cell libraries, memory compilers and GPIOs aimed at advanced foundry processes.
- The agreement was announced April 16, 2025, recorded as acquired August 26, and publicly declared complete August 27.
- Cadence later reported $128.5 million of aggregate consideration.
Not established in those disclosures
- Current customer licensing terms or availability by foundry and process node
- A product-by-product integration schedule
- Measured customer, revenue or performance gains attributable to the acquisition
Cadence’s 2025 expectation that the transaction’s revenue and earnings effect would be immaterial for that year was a forward-looking company statement, not a verified post-closing result.
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