| LONDON — EDA company Cadence Design Systems Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) is preparing to close its design services group in Livingston, Scotland, and is likely to cut the majority of the 90 design positions there, according to online reports. Cadence relocated its Scottish operation from Edinburgh to Livingston in the late 1990s under a government backed plan called Project Alba that was intended to create a design services center of excellence that would employ up to 1900 chip design engineers. Cadence was forced to cut back those plans during the 2001 to 2003 downturn. According to a report in The Herald Cadence has confirmed that it has entered into a 30-day consultation period from April 10 with its design services staff in Livingston and that a "significant number" of the 90 staff are likely to lose their jobs. "We made a strategic decision two years ago to focus on our software products, which design and develop integrated circuits for semiconductor makers and others," the report quoted Tim Barnes, vice-president for marketing at Cadence Europe, as saying. "As part of this strategy, we must balance our design-service capabilities as makes sense. Our core business is software," he was also quoted saying Cadence is expected to retain about 25 R&D personnel and 12 support staff in Livingston. | 
