Latham & Watkins Advises Cadence in Acquisition of Arm Artisan Foundation IP Business
Cadence (Nasdaq: CDNS) announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Arm (Nasdaq: ARM) to acquire Arm’s Artisan foundation IP business, consisting of standard cell libraries, memory compilers, and general-purpose I/Os (GPIOs) optimized for advanced process nodes at the leading foundries. The transaction will augment Cadence’s expanding design IP offerings, anchored by a leading portfolio of protocol and interface IP, memory interface IP, SerDes IP at the most advanced nodes, and embedded security IP from the pending Secure-IC acquisition. The transaction is anticipated to close in the third quarter of 2025, subject to receipt of regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
Latham & Watkins LLP represents Cadence in the transaction with a corporate deal team led by Bay Area partner Mark Bekheit, with associates Jennifer Cadet and John Slater. Advice was provided on intellectual property matters by Bay Area counsel Arielle Singh, with associates Fiona Gillan and Julian Savelski; on data privacy matters by London partner Christian McDermott, with associates Irina Vasile and Timothy Neo; on UK employment matters by London partner Sarah Gadd, with associate Rebecca Fielding; on French employment matters by Paris partner Matthias Rubner, with associate Yanis Gaoua; on US employment matters by Bay Area partner Jay Metz; on tax matters by Bay Area partner Grace Lee and London partner Karl Mah, with associate Jake Meninga; on regulatory matters by Bay Area partner Joshua Holian, London partner Jonathan Parker, Brussels partner Tomas Nilsson, Hamburg partner Jana Dammann de Chapto and Paris partner Charles-Antoine Guelluy, with associates Hanna Nunez Tse, James Mathieson, and Panos Kokkinidis; on export controls and sanctions matters by Washington, D.C. partner Les Carnegie and London partner Robert Price, with associates Matthew Gregory and Amaryllis Bernitsa; and on anti-bribery and corruption matters by London partner Clare Nida, with associate Matthew Unsworth.