Industry Expert Blogs

So what is going on?

• Does this foretell a slowing in the market growth so the smart people are getting out now?
• Is this the start of the long prophesied market maturation?
• Are we finally seeing the so-called market consolidation down to 4 IP vendors?

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard these questions over the last 10 years. It seems like anyone with an opinion on these issues usually speaks up when certain activities occur – like one IP vendor being acquired by another IP vendor. Or people see the acquisitions as a sign that the IP market can’t keep growing at the same rate as the last 3-4 years, which by the way was really quite good. In fact much better than the overall semiconductor market.

Let’s start by looking at the 3^rd Party IP market growth over the last several years.