[Foreign language]
Welcome to Renesas's webinar on acquisition of Altium.
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The webinar is attended by 柴田秀俊, Hidetoshi Shibata, CEO of Renesas, Shuhei Shinkai, CFO of Renesas, and Aram Mirkazemi, CEO of Altium.
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The two CEOs, Shibata-san and Aram-san, will present on the acquisition.
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We will have a Q&A session. The webinar is scheduled for approximately one hour.
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The presentation material will be made available at around 11:00 A.M. at the investor relations site of Renesas. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that the presentation and discussions today may include forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties. Please be advised that actual results may differ from projections.
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I would now like to turn the microphone over to our CEO, Shibata-san.
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Good morning, everyone.
[Foreign language]
I'm Shibata from Renesas. Today. So far at Renesas, over the past few years, we had several cross-border acquisitions of certain size, some significant size, which led to Renesas today. But the announcement we are about to make today is very different in nature from the past acquisitions, from any of the past acquisitions. Looking into the long-term future, this acquisition will be a very important first step that will determine our long-term future. I would like to elaborate on this by presenting slides, and I would like to share with you our views leading up to today. First of all, I would like to recap quickly. In 2022, in September, at the Capital Market Day, as shown at the very left, we had shared with you a 2030 aspiration, embedded semi-solution top 3, turnover of over JPY 20 billion. Those numbers are also important.
However, what I want, I would emphasize the most is the increase in market cap, and that comprises the valuation gap between us and competitors that needs to be filled, and the growth of the semiconductor sector itself and digitalization. I've mentioned that these will be the keys to achieve market cap growth. In March 2023, as you see in the middle of this slide, QC Studio, a web-based, simple, easy-to-use code-automated generation platform was introduced. This is still on a small scale, but it was a huge step forward. Last year, towards the end of last year, we hired Bufna, as shown at the right, the second from the right, and from January this year, software and digitalization that were separately located within Renesas were consolidated. In February 2024, today, we are announcing the acquisition of Altium.
After the announcement of digitalization, one by one, we have taken these steps in sequence leading up to today.
[Foreign language]
What is Altium as a company? I will briefly give an introduction of Altium, and since Aram is also with us, I would like to ask Aram to introduce Altium from his perspective, as it was the case in the case of Dialog. Altium is also listed in Australia, but Aram and leadership are located in San Diego. As for the transaction today, if you look at the numbers, you might seem that the number is quite large. Many of you may have felt that the number is large, but please look at the icons on the left, and I believe you will be able to understand the major reasons why industrial professional use software in the world of that software, year -on -year, close to around a 20% growth is achieved by Altium.
Recently, in the same sector, when we look at other examples, in comparison to those, Altium is growing at a much faster pace. Growth rate is high, and at the same time, as shown at the left bottom, it maintains very high margin. It is maintaining higher margin as it is growing at a fast pace, and this was a major reason for the current valuation. As you see on the right side, these are the major offerings from Altium. These three are major offerings. Designer, PCB design software is at the root of the company, and the middle is a collaboration platform, which was recently launched, and on the right is a search platform. In many respects, this transaction is different from our past transactions. This three-product portfolio is not what we are acquiring.
Of course, the portfolio will be a very important springboard, but first and foremost, by Altium and Renesas working together, the products and capabilities that you see here, and, beyond these, products and platforms, we will be expanding our offerings by working together. I would like to ask Aram to introduce Altium. Aram, over to you.
Thank you, Shibata-san, and hello, everyone. This is an exciting moment for Altium. I believe Altium joining Renesas represents a significant event for the electronics industry. It will lay the foundation to deliver a disruptive impact with far-reaching potential. I believe it will generate transformational value for our combined customers and our stakeholders. But let me first introduce Altium. By way of background, Altium is a global leader in printed circuit board design software. We have delivered advanced design software that maximizes the productivity of electronics engineers for nearly 40 years. Over 100,000 engineers around the world actively use our software tools, making Altium Designer the world's most popular tool for the creation of electronics hardware. We have the world's leading search engine, Octopart, for sourcing electronics parts, with over 20 million monthly page views, covering 13 million unique parts and 7 million visitors per month.
Altium also owns the most successful cloud platform for collaborative design and realization of electronics hardware, Altium 365, with over 40,000 monthly active users. On the financial side, we have an outstanding track record of consistent financial performance and have delivered 10 years of consecutive double-digit revenue CAGR growth and expanding margins, with the only exception being the COVID year 2021. Altium has a 10-year revenue CAGR that exceeds 15%. Altium has a strong operating leverage, consistently delivering EBITDA margins in the mid-30s and above. Over 80% of Altium's revenue is recurring, and we have over 61,000 subscribers of our design software tools. On the technology side, over many years, we have delivered groundbreaking innovations in the field of PCB design software.
We were among the first to bring electronic CAD to the PC platform, the first to adopt the Windows operating system in our industry, the first to deliver 3D PCB, and more recently, launched the world's first cloud platform, Altium 365, for the design and realization of PCB and electronics hardware. We are looking forward to connecting our most popular design software tools, our unique cloud platform, an industry-leading parts search engine with the Renesas's hardware platform for transformational value creation.
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much. I would like to continue. Altium and Renesas's collaboration history will be briefly mentioned from now. There may be some people who know about the relationship. Altium and we, from the beginning, had not led the history up to today. We took around 2 years up till now in collaboration, and we have a history of that. Out of that, Aram himself and Altium leadership members and the working-level collaborations were executed. Through that, the common vision was held amongst us, and that led to today where we were to put our efforts together. What we did up till now, very briefly, would be highlighted.
At the beginning, there is more history, but as of sometime last year, as company to company, a full-scale partnership may be enabled, and we grasp hands together, and Altium Designer platform, on top of which the device symbols which are used, can be a dataset. We have prepared that together. As of now, Renesas is not certifying all of the devices yet, but towards that, we are preparing, and in the near future, Altium users would be certified by Renesas for the symbols for PCB design. On the far right-hand side, there is the Digital Twins, which is an invertible model. It's not that Altium and Renesas only were the members who developed this. Other simulation engine providers, CAE vendors, also are involved, but what is important here is Altium platform is used. On top of this, the collaboration had been conducted up till now.
We're not at a stage to very widely offer it to the market yet, but when it is to be completed very soon, the engineer users will be able to, in this example of the UV inverter, without looking or touching at the actual goods, you will see the temperature signals and the single signal integrated function where a very precise simulation can be done. So, by using goods and you moving it and exploding and having a fire, it's not a time-consuming phenomenon. On the cloud platform, mostly the verification and confirmation had been enabled. This doesn't show all of our vision, but only one part of our vision. But maybe this was what we were trying to do. That is what we would like to introduce up till now. And from Aram's perspective, collaboration and how they perceived that will be added on.
Aram, the floor is yours once more.
Thank you. From the outset, the strategic intent of the Renesas-Altium business relationship and partnership has been to deliver superior solutions and a better customer experience through the cloud enablement and end-to-end streamlining of industry processes that are related to the creation of electronics hardware. Among the notable achievements during our partnership, as Shibata-san explained, we have built a framework for Digital Twins and certified components, which in time would deliver Renesas's Winning Combinations to the industry in a way which will democratize the use of advanced electronics among a much wider range of companies within the broader electronics industry. Having worked closely with Renesas as a partner for quite some time, I'm looking forward to Altium being a part of the Renesas team as we continue to successfully execute and grow.
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much. I told you that that was part of the vision, but what is the vision in all? This is what we would like to communicate to you now. As Aram mentioned, we, through this collaboration, would like to put together our efforts so that electronics design could be more accessible to the broader market. That is our view. As mentioned, within electronics, presently, a very professional company, not an individual, would be involved in the design process, and that would be enabled for people who need electronics, but for people who or companies who do not necessarily design from scratch. So, our vision is that we would like to make it more accessible to the broader market. For that sake, the tool or what kind of implementation methods in order to materialize this is written at the bottom.
It says, "For electronics, assistant design would be created, and lifecycle management is a capability which, with Altium, we will be delivering together." What does this mean? I thought about various factors about this, but I think this example is most understandable. So, this says, "In the past, everyone sees the computer. It's very large and very expensive and for professional use. It started from mainframe and mini computers, office computers, and servers are how it flowed to. So, it wasn't used by everyone, and it's not used by any every company either. On the other hand, when PC appears, especially from Windows on, the PC generated a completely new market, and now it can be that if you don't access to the PC, putting separately the people who access to the smartphones, people who do not access to the PC is really very few.
Something similar to that within our electronics industry is what we would like to visualize. That's our vision and aspiration. Presently, electronics needs professional expert resources, and a company of a certain scale only will be able to materialize this world. But with this PCB having the computer capability to be expanded into various areas, we could co-collaborate together so that by using the cloud platform more simply and more at lower costs, be able to make the operator and companies be able to access easily. More concretely, this example can be introduced. In order to create this, there were a lot of answers that I experienced from designing to producing goods. What do you think is the flow that you may see? Recently, you may think about this, and very roughly speaking, this is one straight line. There's a requirement from the left-hand side.
System architecture is designed, and electronic subsystem architecture design component is designed, and subsystem detailed designs, et cetera, continue. So, that's the flow that is shown. It may be obvious, but as according to matters or factors, in fact, there are more complexities and there are a lot of other processes. But as an example, please understand that this may be one flow. Out of this, putting this together is the PLM world, and as you may know, there are very large-scale companies who are offering solutions already. Underneath that, in the blue, CAE, Computer-Aided Engineering, EDA, Electronic Design Automation, or Altium started with ECAD and MCAD, Mechanical CAD, which are respective tools offered by vendors of certain scale already existing. In fact, the example is EDA vendor working in this and that may be the reality, but our viewpoint is very much simplified here, shown within this diagram.
Out of this, the blue-shaded electronics subsystem architecture electronic system design portion may be within the flow of this overall design. Not necessarily addressed properly. In a sense, it may be a white space type of area. Up till now, no one had solutions. And here, we would like to offer our solutions. That is the thinking this time, as shown below. Device evaluation, et cetera, we would like to provide the seamlessly and easy-to-use fashion on cloud when necessary, as shown at the top. Very sophisticated CAE tools can be offered together with third-party vendors. We would like to offer such a platform. What good things will that bring about in electronics? As you are aware of, in various different fields, electronics have become indispensable and essential, and what used to be mechanical is now dictated more by electronics.
However, despite that, tools in electronics, vendors in electronics are quite fragmented, and these disparate resources have to be integrated, and that required expertise inside. As shown in the middle, design also becomes more and more complex, which needed to be addressed, and as shown on the right, in spite of all of these, customer preference will change, and testing in the market and introduction to the market or time to market has to be shortened. There's a greater pressure to shorten the time to market. These are the challenges, and the blue area, the electronics area, in that area, we would like to offer solutions to meet these challenges. What are the solutions? At this juncture, these are still ideas, and some are still not realized, but with Altium, we would like to develop these together and provide these together.
It is not that we are simply buying what Altium already has. Of course, that is included, but we would like to develop and offer new solutions and create future together. That is the main purpose of the integration acquisition. For example, ensuring integrity of the data and what is characteristic in electronics is that it is different from mechanical things. Many of the components are sourced and purchased. In case of mechanical things, mostly components are made in-house, but in case of electronics, a large number of components will have to be purchased from outside. And management of components is different in nature and flow from the traditional mechanical manufacturing. And the models and design tools, we have enriched our lineup, but we would further like to enhance those lineups and make them easier to use. The last part, this is also very important.
In case of an earlier example of computer, a single vendor, is providing everything virtually, vertically. That may be one possible approach, but our vision and direction is not that. As much as possible, we would like to offer very characteristic, strong tools and provide platforms that are easy to use. And on the platform, what is necessary, including CAE and something that will connect to manufacturing and their connectivity, these are what we would like to realize on the platform. Therefore, we have several strong tools and capabilities in combination with the platform to offer new solutions to wide-ranging market participants. That is the vision. You might say, "We understand the vision," but you might still question why Renesas and Altium. And using two slides, I would like to speak to that.
First of all, in the near term, and especially, financially, what are the benefits of the two coming together? And then I would like to discuss the benefit over a longer term. As for the near-term benefits, rather than the larger vision that I've described earlier, over the near term, by using the resources of Renesas to the maximum, we would like to accelerate the growth of Altium, and we believe we are certain to achieve this. I would like to ask Aram to discuss this from his perspective, but from our perspective, we have a large footprint, especially in MCU, and over the few years, we have extended Winning Combinations.
We now have a very extensive range of Winning Combinations, and on top of the Altium platform, by having these better represented for market participants, for users of Altium, we will be able to provide attractive offering in the near term. For larger customers in particular, and when support is necessary to introduce a certain products, support response that we provide can be utilized to the maximum to accelerate Altium's growth significantly. In the software world, there have been various consolidations in the industry more so than in the hardware sector. Altium, going forward, might do bolt-on acquisitions to acquire capabilities that it currently does not have from outside, and our scale can be brought to bear for more active earlier such acquisitions for the growth of Altium.
Now, I would like to once again turn the microphone over to Aram to discuss what the benefit of this combination is for Altium. Thank you, Shuhei Shinkai. From our expert perspective, ownership of Altium by Renesas will enable us to achieve the full benefit of converting potential to outcome. The combination of our most popular design software tools and our leading cloud platform with Renesas's hardware platform. Renesas brings deep customer intimacy with a much larger account base than ours and has the financial strength to accelerate industry transformation in a way that we could not deliver on our own. Everyone at Altium is excited about the opportunity to make electronics design accessible to a much broader market and to foster the engineering and product innovation that will come from the creation of an electronics system design and lifecycle management platform. Over to you, Shuhei Shinkai.
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Thank you. Long-term no. Then I would now like to turn to the longer-term benefits for Renesas. Altium's customer base is such that it is a much broader base in comparison to our historical customer base, and we will be able to have better access to that broader base of customers. And as shown in the middle, platforms, and there are also several tools, and we can use the intelligence of the platform and tools to make our solutions, including Winning Combinations, easier to use for customers, and devices themselves will also be easier to use. Platform participants, as the number of participants grow, our ecosystem will be much more enriched than it is now.
However, on this platform, and coming back to the analogy of computer, we do not plan to exclusively use this platform, but quite, on the contrary, this platform will be opened to the industry part, market participants.
Industry overall should be able to enjoy designing of electronics easily, and there should be innovation as a result. The way electronics is used will be more versatile, and just as it was the case for PC, the access to technology will be simple, and more people will be able to enjoy using that technology. Therefore, ultimately, electronics industry overall will be receiving the benefits because we own this platform. For example, compared to other participants, it may be more closer to us, or for data use, we'll be more quicker to gain insights by materializing that. Semiconductor hardware business itself may be more grown in a quicker manner. Financials will be mentioned here. Subsequently, there will be supplementations, but with this transaction, we are not considering use of equity, basically. From the consolidated form, EPS accretion will be started.
On top of that, as in the case of other transactions, after several years, there will be cost synergy and revenue synergy to be materialized gradually so that after coming together, as on the right-hand side, EPS would be more higher in acquisition. On the right-hand side, our EBITDA, free cash flow, will be utilized, and as in the case of past transactions, in the short term, be it 2 or 3 years, net debt to EBITDA would be one multiple, and less. Thickness compared to several years ago has become more increased accordingly. Our net asset compared to the past has a lot of buffers and cushion. So for this multiple, I think you would be for the financial aspects, be feeling secure. [Foreign language] transaction will be revisited, and with that, I would like to conclude my explanation.
So it is AUD 68.5 per share equity value of AUD 9.1 billion, enterprise value of AUD 8.8 billion. Altium's recent closing price of the shares, against which it's a premium of 34% to be set, is the level. Next is funding. As mentioned, equity will not be utilized. It will be financed totally with bank loans and cash on hand. That is our plan. The closing would be because this is an Australian transaction, Altium shareholders' approval is necessary, and Australian court approval and also the related regulator clearance would be necessary. As of now, we assume that the second half of this year would be the timing for us to welcome the closing. Different from the past transaction, there is another point to mention.
Semiconductor acquisition was where we totally owned the company, and they become a subsidiary of Renesas, but different from that, we will continue the relationship with Altium as is. As mentioned, within this industry, a large platform is to be established, so Renesas, into which everything to be mixed, is what we would like to avoid. We are very much near, but the positioning is one of the participants at the platform. Having said that, there are various cost synergy to be generated for that sake. The business line put aside, there will be support functions to be integrated so that the economy of scale will be maximized. With that, my explanation, rather prolonged, concludes here about the acquisition of Altium. Thank you very much for your kind attention. Thank you very much. We would now like to entertain questions. Aram-san and Shinkai-san, please turn your video on.
If you have questions, please use the raise-hand icon on the screen, and MC will call upon you by company name and your name. When you are called upon, please unmute your microphone and start your question. In the interest of time, please limit the number of questions to one per person so that there will be more opportunities for many people to ask questions. First, Yasui-san from UBS Securities. Please unmute your microphone, and please start with your question.
Thank you. Thank you for taking my question. Can you hear me?
Yes, we can.
The number of questions was limited to one, but actually, I have two questions. I would like to have more information in order to be able to make projections. In a similar model, EPS is buying companies or cloud platform is having a toolkit for designing cutting-edge semiconductors. Who are the comparables in terms of business models? Who are the companies that are in the similar business? 60,000 is the number of customers that was mentioned earlier. Out of how many in the universe of customers do you have 60,000 in terms of understanding of the marketing opportunity, please?
The second part of the question I would like to ask Aram to answer. Regarding the first question, let me respond. From quite some time ago, in the industrial sector, we have been studying the sector, and there are several useful references and precedents. What was most informative to us and what we have been paying close attention to was Schneider in the sector near semiconductors, and as I've discussed earlier, rolling up of software vendors.
It's not that we are trying to change Renesas from upside down with such roll-downs, but through organic growth and bolt-on centering around Altium, over time, we would like to establish a robust platform. It is not possible to discuss in specifics immediately, but after a few years, if you look at the total picture of Renesas, I believe you will come to understand what we were aiming to achieve if you see the results a few years down the line. Through this platform, we would like to expand our businesses, and ultimately, through the platform, the intelligence captured will also help accelerate the semiconductor business of ours. About Altium, Aram, please.
Well, I agree. This is something that I see a synergistic relationship between the two businesses, highly complementary.
We have visions that are very resonant, and that resonance brings the two sides, which is enabling a larger number of customers and companies to be able to access advanced electronics and Renesas's vision to make advanced electronics accessible to all. These two, one is methodology and one is the actual electronics itself, can come together through this in a way that has benefit for both companies. So we see this is going to help us execute at a faster pace, and also, I think we can help Renesas to bring about its vision in a quicker way. So I see this in the short term and in the medium term and in the long term, highly synergistic.
[Foreign language]
Could you comment on the customers? How many customers in the total universe and number of customers you're currently serving?
We have about 20,000 customers around the world that are using our software with 61,000 subscribers in terms of seats and subscription.
[Foreign language] Just to address your question.
[Foreign language] Hirakawa-san, please could release your microphone? You are on mute, I think. [Foreign language] We cannot hear your voice. [Foreign language] I must apologize. [Foreign language] Newspaper, please. Please unmute. [Foreign language] Who is that?
[Foreign language] I'm Hirakawa from BofA. [Foreign language] May I continue? [Foreign language]
Yes, please.
[Foreign language] Thank you. Nikkei Eguchi is my name. [Foreign language] The presentation may be revisited here. [Foreign language] As open platform, Altium. [Foreign language] Characteristic will be maintained, and with this M&A conducted, I understand the intent of this overall. With this M&A. [Foreign language] Open platform participants is not just what you are one member of. What is not done by Renesas? What is unique within this acquisition that you will be able to gain?
And with this M&A, as Renesas, what kind of company will you become? I would like to know about that. Up to now, as the market and semiconductor manufacturing is what we recognize you as, but going nearer to the platform side, namely electronics design, platformer, is that the direction that you would like to go towards? In a word, what kind of company would you like to become? That's how I would like to know.
[Foreign language] Platform participant is. [Foreign language] From the perspective of what we target. [Foreign language] Maybe that is not enough. [Foreign language] That I'm anxious that Aram mentioned today is that presently, we are very much serious in an area. [Foreign language] That we suppose someone would be working on in the future, but the people who are participating now was not visualized. Maybe it takes time, and we needed to wait.
So from the time access, there was one perspective. Another point was benefits for us. I touched on that. Digitalization, design, and simulation are expanding continuously. That cannot be avoided. As the river flows upstream to downstream, it takes time, but it is a flow that is definitely progressing, in which case towards the upstream, insights should be gained. Or from the perspective of upstream, how should semiconductors become, and what should packages be, what kind of solutions are usable? From the perspective of upstream, incorporating a player who has it would be selected ultimately by the users. That's what we thought. Therefore, to work on it as soon as possible. The semiconductor business and semiconductor companies' perspective should be more user-oriented. It should be backtested from the upstream in order to provide that this combination was conceivable and optimal, and the timing was now.
That is what we consider. Therefore, as mentioned, Renesas's business model to be changed from right to left completely is not what we envisioned. On the other hand, the platform should be enlarged. Therefore, it can say that platform and also the existing point, it wouldn't be an expansion or extension, semiconductor hardware company Renesas, and that may be the $2 billion. That is our vision. That's all.
[Foreign language] Thank you very much.
[Foreign language] Hirakawa-san from BofA Securities, please.
Long-term vision was the earlier question, but in the near term, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but direct competitors, PCB software, Allegro, and Venta, may be your direct competitors. And in comparison to these, what are the strengths of Altium, and what are the issues or challenges for Altium? Acquisition premium is about JPY 200 billion from the closing price yesterday, and how will profit be grown in the near term in terms of financials?
First part, I would like to ask Aram to respond, and the latter part of the question will be addressed by Shinkai-san, CFO. Aram-san, Altium's competitors that Hirakawa-san mentioned, could you talk about them and the strengths of Altium?
Altium is very strong in the mid-market. We have essentially a very strong presence in the mid-market companies, and there are, of course, larger companies as well, but our dominance, if I could say so, is very, very strong in the mid-market. And that is also the market that is underserved. So we see that area as really significant.
The other thing that differentiates us, say, from our competitors, particularly the one that you mentioned, is that we are very much system-oriented, board from system design to the board level to the system design at product level and electromechanical designs and so forth. This is our strength. So the competitor you mentioned is silicon packaging board, and we sit next to that, which is board, system, and product. So we see ourselves very much complementary with several different customer needs, and that's it. We do not see ourselves in the same space, but of course, the board is the same, but our cloud platform is unique, and we have it open to all other players to be able to access it. We have a very open policy and do not see it as a competition.
[Foreign language] Thank you. Shinkai-san, please.
Regarding the premium, as Shibata-san mentioned in the presentation, we expect synergy to be generated. As for components, complaints and synergy, roughly speaking, there are two. First, cost synergy, and the other is top-line synergy. In the past acquisitions, in terms of difference from the past acquisitions, the lead time until we enjoy synergy may be a little longer. As for cost synergy, we expect the synergy to be in place in the near term. But as for top-line synergy, first, we will be accelerating investment, and then we will be increasing top-line thereafter. That is the trajectory that we anticipate. And therefore, from closing in around 4-5 years, we expect to ramp up, and by that time, we expect to recoup the premium. Thank you very much.
[Foreign language] P lease. Please release your mute mode.
Thank you very much. [Foreign language] Thank you. [Foreign language] I would like to ask.
The sound is not coming in. [Foreign language] I think it's disconnected.
[Foreign language] Hello? Can you hear? [Foreign language] Thank you. [Foreign language]
Thank you to you. [Foreign language] Your question was disconnected.
S o I'd like to start again, please. [Foreign language] With this M&A conducted. [Foreign language] There may be some gaps to fill in anew or some areas that you need to deploy. Is there such, or on the other hand, is it more or less at completion stage, and for some time, large-scale M&A will not be occurring? [Foreign language] By this M&A. [Foreign language] Some new. [Foreign language] Enablement may be possible. We heard up to now that. [Foreign language] Extension of the semiconductor hardware is not the case here. You will be involving a software or something large-scale, small-scale, et cetera, were encompassed. Out of that, non-hardware, something large seems to have appeared.
Accordingly, you may have visualized some world, and what you want to fill in is what I would like to know about.
[Foreign language] There are environments continuously changing. Therefore, we have to adjust ourselves to that. What I can say today is, at least, the similar scale of acquisition to be conducted once more as of this point is not at all assumed. On the other hand, as shown previously, there is the product requirement definition from which there will be a bridge towards production, and with that flow, electronics part should be fulfilled furthermore. In some cases, there may be some bolt-on acquisitions that are preferable.
As of now, we assume that everything put together, or rather, by each and every transaction, around JPY 100 billion-JPY 200 billion, or a little more than that, is the sense of scale of acquisition that may be in our viewpoint for bolt-on acquisitions. JPY 500 billion per deal is a scale that we do not envision at all at this moment. As in the past, in the hardware world, and Transphorm acquisition was announced the other day, that type of initiatives may be continued going forward. In the hardware world, maybe JPY 10 billion or something like that is not conceivable as of now. I understand very well.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
[Foreign language] Yes. Kojima-san from Nikkei BP, please unmute, and please start with your question. [Foreign language]
Thank you. This is Kojima from Nikkei BP.
[Foreign language] According to what you have presented, it seems that it will take substantial time before the vision is completed. But what do you envision in the interim? And as Shibata-san discussed at the outset, without the physical development to be able to verify on computers, simulation and cooperation from other vendors will also be necessary, I suspect. Are you already making approaches? Do you have a sense of what you will be able to do in this respect? So when can we see this in reality? What is the timeline for that?
[Foreign language] Thank you for that question. Software and cloud world, as you are well aware of, is such that CI/CD agile concept fits very well. After completing something very large and presenting it after the completion, rather than that, in a step-by-step basis, things are introduced and they are made more and more sophisticated.
In that respect, I think the first step, I wonder, and I will have to have a good discussion with Aram, but maybe in one year or so, what we plan to do, we might be able to show that. However, the large picture is that towards 2030, we would like to enhance and enrich our capabilities. And the second question, what was your second point? Oh, yes. [Foreign language] In the history of collaboration, I've shown that in the digital area, we are collaborating with very strong CAE vendors. [Foreign language] It is not that we are embarking on something that is entirely new, or without us placing any special request in this world, collaboration is normal, and I believe collaboration will continue. And what is crucial here is that the platform is opened and is maintained as an open platform.
And that is a crucial key for collaboration with Altium. Of course, there are many areas where we can work together, but Altium's platform should not impede collaboration with other partners that we have to work with. So the answer is we have been working with these vendors, and we do not pose this acquisition to pose any problems in continuing with collaboration with these vendors. Can you name an example of a CAE vendor by name? I would like to refrain from giving a name, but people who are knowledgeable of the industry should know of a CAE vendor. We work with well-known CAE vendors.
Citigroup Securities, Siraj-san, please unmute . Please unmute and pose your question.
Thank you for the opportunity for asking questions. I have two questions. Maybe first one for Aram. Aram, I guess one question that we are getting is, three years ago, you knocked back a bit from Autodesk, right, and said a strategic investment would be better. I understand the share price and the bid premium is different this time, but what made you change your view here in terms of being taken over instead of being a strategic investment, I guess?
Hi, Siraj. This was a very strong offer and a compelling offer, which the board considered, and it's a strong endorsement of Altium's strategy and its performance. I see the shared vision between the two companies, and the potential is even greater, but as the two companies working together as one. So I can't really comment other than saying that it's a strong offer and is also a strong endorsement of our strategy and performance.
Thank you. Shibata-san, just one question for you. Did you look at any other targets in this EDA space, and what really differentiated Altium? Was it the 365 platform? I'm just keen to hear your thoughts. Thank you.
[Foreign language] What is big is the following two. As Aram mentioned about the middle market, and within my slide, the PC picture was shown to you. What we want to achieve here is that an established player working securely. And in the previous example, it's about mainframe, but that's not what we wanted. Altium's capability should be utilized to the full, by which new markets should be created. That's what we wanted to do: more simply and more low-cost, usable platform in a more expanded manner is to be offered. For that sake, Altium's technology foundation would be best. That's one reason. The other is, that's not all. Beyond this, what kind of world do we want to materialize? Starting from Aram, Altium's leadership, and as we mentioned, it's not that we just had interest. We had collaborations continued from the past.
Having the same vision in order to work in this space was what I was really convinced about. As mentioned, today's acquisition in various ways is different from the past acquisitions. It is rather difficult to understand, but Altium as now and technology of Altium as now is not to be acquired. Obviously, those are valuable, but on top of that, with the Altium members, a more sophisticated tool and capability and platform is what we wanted to create. As far as we know at this moment, no one towards this market is working on it. Therefore, the intent and vision to be shared is very important. Those two aspects were what Altium had. So I thought that it will be faster to get together with them in order to work together. That's why I approached Aram. So that's how it led to the recent transactions.
Very helpful. Thank you.
[Foreign language] Tsuda-san from Semicon Portal, please unmute and please start.
This is Tsuda from Semicon Portal. Hello? [Foreign language] One question. Where is Renesas headed to? That is where I would like to see clarification.
Board design, subsystem design, subsystem and board design is an area of strength for Altium. And looking at the website of Altium, it is collaborating with various players. And at the same time, simulation with Ansys is also undertaken. That is what I was able to gather from the website of Altium. Semiconductor manufacturers, for example, TSMC is using EDA tool, and plus EDA tool is included in the ecosystem of TSMC. Their aim is a cutting-edge package, templates, and 3D, 2.5D, 3D ICs. To be able to design these, they need certain things. And I believe over the short term, Renesas will be offering that.
On the other hand, as for AI chip, DGX from NVIDIA, the board and the package electronic components, all combined, those are offered. Cerebras and NVIDIA, these AI dedicated chip manufacturers, are offering not only chips, but they also manufacture a board and also the casing. And where is Renesas headed towards? Hardware reference board is manufactured and provided by Renesas in an integrated fashion. Is Renesas trying to be an overall semiconductor manufacturer and continue to do this business, or will it also offer a design on a platform in an open way so that anyone is able to access tools plus semiconductors? Is Renesas planning to pursue both? That appears to be the case to me. Is my understanding correct? As you rightly mentioned, we would like to pursue both. [Foreign language] companies are focused on specific applications.
Truly system level, they are offering solutions, as you pointed out, in comparison to these companies. In our case, in that sense, I think we are taking a contrasting approach. Broad range of applications to a broad range of customers to a broad range of devices. We are taking a completely opposite approach. In this world, we are working hard and we are providing more than 400 Winning Combinations. We would like to enhance this even further, and we would also like to do this in a more data-driven fashion and cater to the needs of the customers. That is the first and foremost. We would like to improve the quality of our solutions. And beyond that, for the devices themselves, where are customers having difficulties? And why are customers comparing one device to another? What are they paying attention to?
We would like to accumulate data-driven intelligence so that we are able to feed that back to the design of devices themselves. In order to achieve this, the platform should be open and accessible to as many participants as possible to be effective. We would like to achieve growth through this open platform. I may be repeating myself, but through the acquisition of Altium, we will be achieving certain things. This might seem very different from the past and very new, but I believe the shift towards digitalization is inevitable. We do not know when, but this trend is inevitable. Therefore, traditional device manufacturers, so long as we remain a traditional device manufacturer, we will only be marginalized. Therefore, this is us being on the offensive, and offense is the best defense. We are also on the defensive through this acquisition.
Rather than waiting for what is inevitable to come, we would like to accelerate the trend and would also like to accelerate our growth. I believe in the long term, in the far out in the future, you might be offering electronic devices.
Thank you.
[Foreign language] A lot of questions have come in, but the time has come. So this will be the last question. Nomura Securities, Mr. Tsuda, please unmute. [Foreign language] Mr. Tsuda, please release your mute mode. [Foreign language] It seems your voice cannot be heard. I'm very sorry, but I would like to go to the next question. [Foreign language] please unmute and ask your question.
[Foreign language] Can you hear me?
Yes, we do.
[Foreign language] A basic question, if I may. Altium's industry position is what I would like to know about.
If you work together in order to create value going forward, as mentioned, then maybe it's rather difficult to say, but is there something, a certain share in a certain area that you have and could explain? I would like to hear about that. In each of the industries, more middle market users to be expanded to was mentioned. For example, e-cars or some certain areas. Do you have some area or industry in mind in order to more widely work into? What is the basis of motivation and what kind of area are you interested in?
Altium's positioning, if necessary, would be added on by Aram. But surely, the market share basis where top group company is what Altium is positioned as. As Aram mentioned, it may be that it's often talked about in the same category for certain companies. They have more sophisticated models taken.
Against that, Altium mainly targets middle markets so that more intuitively, ease of use is what they say. We're not. [Foreign language]
Electronics, until not so long ago, was not really a common part of our lives or products or things in this world. But in the last 20 years, it just exploded in such a way that there are many companies that have brought electronics in, but it's not easy for them to be competitive with companies that are electronics-centric. There are a large number of them in the mid-market, and electronics competency is something that is new. And it's very important what Shibata-san described as the process of digitalization, which is essentially bringing digital continuity to all processes that are associated with not only design but the lifecycle management and all the upstream and downstream activities.
This is incredibly important, and I believe many companies in the world that are actually not small—they might even be very large—are underserved. So that is the area that I believe that, as Shibata-san said again, a new market would be created. And a cloud platform is essential for realization of Renesas's vision of digitalization, and Altium can well serve that purpose.
[Foreign language] Thank you very much. Obviously, like electric vehicles, they are very much attractive and have the potential to grow significantly. It's a very valuable market, but it's being very large and vertical. It's a market to be selectively picked. It's not our direction. We may address that, but we would like to expand the basis, and that is where we would like to have a viewpoint too. Special application tool or solutions to be integrated.
[Foreign language] Already active, in which vendors do exist, and they're trying to do that. They're very active. But the consistent theme for today for us is that. [Foreign language] An example I thought is not mainframe server but a PC model to be conducted so that new markets can be created. Please understand our policy as such. That's all.
[Foreign language] Thank you.
[Foreign language] With that, we would like to conclude Q&A session. Final word from Shibata-san, please.
Thank you very much for attending this webinar. The acquisition is different from the past acquisitions, as we've discussed on past occasions. But software and cloud, where is Renesas going? That was a question, and I have taken a due note of that. As for the vision that we have presented today, regarding that vision and achievement of that vision, we would like to provide a regular update so that you will understand how things are evolving. We will focus on achieving these results. Therefore, please continue to look forward to our achievements. Thank you very much.