John Cooley has found out that another boss of a design for manufacturing EDA firm has lost his job, this time the very likable Naeem Zafar from Pyxis.
Is [sic] seems that, just like Aprio, for some unannounced reason (there's no press release nor any notice on the company web page) the founding CEO of Pyxis, Naeem Zafar, is now unexpectedly missing and he's subsequently been replaced by the Pyxis VP of Engineering, Joe Hutt.
The reference to Aprio is due to its CEO, Mike Gianfagna, giving himself the boot late last year.
Both Zafar and Gianfagna are victims of a cull that is starting in the DFM business, which is horrendously over-represented by start-ups, with firms struggling to convince EDA tool buyers to go with their tools rather than those from the big EDA players.
As Cooley cooly points out:
As an exit strategy, if Mentor doesn't buy you (because they're the only saloon in town who doesn't have a proprietary P&R tool to protect) you're screwed.
Anyway, it's a shame about Naeem, because he's one of the nicest blokes in the industry. He spent a long time at Quickturn, the emulation firm that was bought by Cadence, and was then CEO at Veridicom and SDS.
UPDATE:
Pyxis has now put out a press release on the matter, confirming the loss of Naeem, and promoting Joe Hutt to the president and CEO slots. It seems Naeem has gone on to pastures new:
Naeem Zafar, Pyxis' president and CEO from May 2005 until this month, has left the company to pursue a long-term interest in entrepreneurial development. He has joined Altair Ventures, an entry-level, high-technology investment and consulting firm that helps entrepreneurs shape their ideas into profitable companies
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