Cadence Design Systems (CDNS) 10-K2023 FY Annual report

Companies that design semiconductors and other electronic devices use our solutions to design, simulate, verify, signoff and manufacture every major type of semiconductor electronics including analog, mixed-signal, radio frequency (“RF”) and microwave devices, photonics, memory devices and digital chips for high-performance computing and AI, including central processing units (“CPUs”), graphics processing units (“GPUs”), neural processing units (“NPUs”), three-dimensional (“3D”) integrated circuit (“3D-IC”) and advanced package devices. These devices are used in multiple vertical sectors.

Companies that design system-level products cover a broad range of vertical sectors including automotive, aerospace and defense systems, networking and communication systems, high-performance computing, cloud infrastructure and data centers, medical systems and health and life sciences. These companies use our solutions to design, simulate, verify and manufacture complete system products with the electronics included.

Our offerings include software, hardware, services, and reusable IC design blocks, which are commonly referred to as IP. Our semiconductor customers use our offerings to design, configure, analyze, and verify integrated circuits (“ICs”). Additionally, customers license our IP, which accelerates their product development processes by providing pre-designed and verified circuit blocks for their ICs. Systems customers use our offerings to design, simulate, and verify the electro-thermal and physical functionality of their ICs, PCBs, and systems products. Some of our software offerings are used by pharmaceutical and biotech companies to help accelerate their drug discovery process.

Our Intelligent System Design™ strategy allows us to deliver essential computational software, hardware and IP that our customers use to turn their design concepts into reality. Our customers include many of the world’s most innovative companies that design and build highly sophisticated semiconductor and electronic systems found in products used in everyday life. Our Intelligent System Design strategy allows us to quickly adapt to our customers' dynamic design requirements. We develop industry-leading computational software and hardware, generative AI, and digital twin algorithms to help solve their toughest challenges. Our software and services enable our customers to produce products that meet their critical business goals including time-to-market, costs and productivity while meeting growing global environmental concerns including sustainability and carbon emissions.

The creation of even the most seemingly simple electronic systems and products that people use every day is a complex process and requires many highly-trained engineers with various areas of specialized knowledge and skill sets. Our ability to deliver products that keep up with increasing complexity allows our customers to be successful in meeting their business goals and objectives.

Historically, the industry that provided the tools used by IC engineers was referred to as Electronic Design Automation (“EDA”). The pace of technical innovation in EDA has been driven by a concept known as Moore’s Law, which more than 50 years ago predicted that the complexity of ICs would double approximately every 18-24 months. Today, our offerings include and extend beyond EDA to enable computational software for Intelligent System Design across three layers as illustrated below—starting with semiconductor and silicon design excellence, followed by system innovation, and then pervasive intelligence.

The second layer of our strategy leverages our computational expertise, expanding our solutions into the physical analysis in system innovation. It includes tools and services used for system design of the packages that encapsulate the ICs, 3D-ICs and PCBs. Our technology covers system simulation analysis, including electromagnetic, electro-thermal, electromechanics, and other multiphysics analysis necessary as part of optimizing the full system’s performance, radio frequency (“RF”) and microwave systems, and embedded software. We also leverage our computational software expertise to life sciences by offering biosimulation solutions.

The third layer of our strategy addresses pervasive intelligence in new electronics. It starts with providing solutions and services to develop AI-enhanced systems and includes machine learning, deep learning and digital twin capabilities being added to the Cadence computational software and computational hardware portfolio to make IP and tools more automated and to produce optimized results faster. It also includes deploying generative AI techniques and LLMs to provide a rich set of co-pilots or design assistants to accelerate the design process.

Our software and special-purpose hardware products also support cloud access to address the growing computational needs of our customers.

Consistent with our Intelligent System Design strategy, we completed several acquisitions since the beginning of fiscal 2023 that we believe enhance our talent, our technology portfolio and our ability to pursue attractive opportunities in the markets we serve.

During the third quarter of fiscal 2023, we acquired the Rambus SerDes and memory interface PHY IP assets from Rambus Inc. This acquisition broadens our enterprise IP portfolio in the design of AI, data center and hyperscale applications, as well as extends our expertise across multiple vertical sectors including automotive, aerospace and defense and consumer electronics, with the objective of providing broad subsystem solutions that meet the demands of our worldwide customers.

During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023, we acquired Intrinsix Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of CEVA, Inc., and a provider of design engineering solutions focused on the U.S. aerospace and defense industry. This acquisition adds a highly skilled engineering team that has expertise in advanced nodes, radio frequency, mixed signal and security algorithms.

In January 2024, we acquired Invecas, Inc., a leading provider of design engineering, embedded software and system-level solutions. This acquisition adds a skilled system design engineering team with expertise in providing custom solutions across chip design, product engineering, advanced packaging and embedded software.

Our products and services enable our customers to design complex and innovative semiconductor and electronic systems that are accelerated by the trends of semiconductor companies designing electrical systems, systems companies designing semiconductors, the hyper-convergence between electrical and mechanical systems and generative AI. Demand for our technology and expertise is driven by increasing complexity and our customers’ need to invest in new designs and products that are highly differentiated.

We believe the most promising new opportunities for us involve enabling the design of electronic systems for consumers, including digital twin, generative AI, augmented reality (“AR”), virtual reality (“VR”), IIoT, edge computing, hyperscale computing (including data center infrastructure), mobile, communications (including 5G networks), automotive, aerospace and defense, industrial subsystems, as well as the emerging opportunities in life sciences. Large and existing electronics categories, such as data center infrastructure, networking, mobile, smartphones and AI products, continue to provide business opportunities for us as customers initiate new design projects.

Underlying the requirements within any particular vertical sector is the availability of rapidly improving IC manufacturing technology. In order for our customers to take advantage of such advancements, some of our products need to first incorporate new capabilities such that they can exploit new manufacturing capabilities. This dependency means that we must invest significantly in product research and development (“R&D”) to keep pace with the latest manufacturing technology. The demand for new IC manufacturing technology directly impacts the demand for our newest products.

Another driver for our business is the differentiation, capabilities and benefits provided to our customers by our products. With the rapid pace of innovation comes the opportunity for our products to address growing key challenges associated with the design of electronic products, such as power consumption, performance, chip area and cost. Our products and services have differentiated attributes that our customers value. In general, these attributes can be grouped into broader categories such as quality of results (“QoR”) (in terms of power consumption, performance and chip area), engineering productivity, tool performance, manufacturing, reliability and faster time to market. Many of these attributes contribute to sustainability initiatives by enabling our customers to create innovative products that optimize power, space and energy.

Our Intelligent System Design strategy enables our customers to address a broad range of challenges that arise as they develop electronic products. Our solutions are categorized according to the role they play in the electronic product design process. We group our products into categories related to major design activities, including custom IC design and simulation, digital IC design and signoff, functional verification, IP, and system design and analysis. All of our product categories have generative AI solutions that augment the core product offering.

Our custom IC design and simulation offerings are used by our customers to create schematic and physical representations of circuits down to the transistor level for analog, mixed-signal, custom digital, memory and RF designs. These representations are verified using simulation tools optimized for each type of design, including the design capture environment, simulation and IC layout within the Virtuoso custom IC design platform. Other tools in the custom IC portfolio are used to prepare the designs for manufacturing.

Our digital IC design and signoff solutions are used to create logical representations of a digital circuit or an IC that can be verified for correctness prior to implementation (please refer to the discussion under “Functional Verification” below). Once the logic is verified, the design representation is implemented, or converted to a format ready for silicon manufacturing, using additional software tools within this category. The manufacturing representation is also analyzed and verified. Our digital IC design and signoff technology suite provides a full flow to achieve power, performance and area (“PPA”) design targets, and includes three major categories: logic design, physical implementation and signoff.

Cadence Cerebrus™ is our generative AI solution that combines all elements of the full-flow IC through signoff that enables additional productivity, automation and improved quality of results throughout the entire design flow.

Functional verification products are used by our customers to effectively and efficiently verify that the circuitry or the software they have designed is consistent with the functional specification. Verification is largely done throughout the design process, with the objective of identifying as many potential functional problems as possible before manufacturing the circuitry, thereby significantly reducing the risk of discovering a costly error in the completed product.

These engines are used for early bug detection, verification of block-level functionality, verification acceleration and emulation of system-level functionality, system-level power exploration, analysis and optimization, and system-level prototyping for hardware/software co-verification. Our Palladium platform provides high throughput, capacity, data center reliability and workgroup productivity to enable global design teams to develop advanced hardware-software systems. The Protium platform leverages a common front end with the Palladium environment to move designs rapidly from emulation to the prototyping stage, allowing for software development to begin weeks to months earlier than otherwise possible.

Our system design and analysis offerings are used by our customers to develop PCBs and advanced IC packages and to analyze electromagnetic, electro-thermal and other multiphysics effects.

Our Fidelity™ CFD Software expands our ability to meet the growing design challenges of electronic and systems companies. Fidelity CFD is a physics-based analysis solution for mechanical design and complements the electronic system analysis portfolio. Our comprehensive suite of computational fluid dynamics (“CFD”) solutions enables our customers to extend their multiphysics analysis workflows to address simulation and analysis challenges for applications such as aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, propulsion, turbomachinery, heat transfer and combustion.

Our Millennium™ Multiphysics Enterprise Platform is an industry-first turnkey AI-enabled digital twin. Millennium M1 is the first release and overcomes traditional CFD speed/accuracy and compute resource limitations with a combination of GPU resident CFD solvers such as Fidelity LES for large eddy simulations (“LES”) and scalable high-performance hardware.

Augmenting all our multiphysics analysis solutions is Optimality™ Intelligent System Explorer, an industry-first generative AI-driven multiphysics optimization solution that enables additional productivity, automation and quality of results throughout the entire analysis flow. Optimality Explorer breaks through the limitations of the conventional human-intensive optimization process and is designed to produce the optimal system design solution expeditiously and without compromising accuracy.

An additional AI digital twin solution of our Data Center Design and Insight Platform brings physics-based design and analysis to the data center sector for performance-aware design and operational planning. Data center professionals can future-proof designs and assess operational decisions with this digital twin and empower designers, owners and operators to address the need for reliability, capacity and energy efficiency.

We also offer molecular modeling and simulation solutions obtained through our acquisition of OpenEye Scientific Software in fiscal 2022. These solutions and services are used by a wide range of organizations in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors to accelerate the drug discovery process and make more informed decisions in the development of new therapeutics.

We primarily license our software using time-based licenses. Our time-based license arrangements offer customers the right to access and use all of the products delivered at the outset of an arrangement and updates throughout the entire term of the arrangement, which is generally two to three years, with no rights to return. Our updates provide continued access to our evolving technology as our customers’ designs migrate to more advanced nodes. In addition, certain time-based license arrangements include the right for the customer to remix among the products delivered at the outset of the arrangement and use unspecified additional products that become commercially available during the term of the arrangement.

A small portion of our software is licensed under perpetual licenses, which does not include the right to use new technology. Payment terms for time-based licenses generally provide for payments to be made over the license period, and payment terms for perpetual licenses generally are net 30 days.

Our emulation and prototyping hardware products are either sold or leased to our customers. Our emulation hardware can also be accessed remotely via a Cadence-managed cloud arrangement.

We generally license our design IP under nonexclusive license agreements that provide usage rights for specific designs. Some customers enter into non-cancelable commitments, whereby the customer commits to a fixed dollar amount over a specified period of time that can be used to purchase from a list of products or services. In addition, for certain IP license agreements, we collect royalties as our customers ship their product that includes our IP to their customers.

For a further description of our license agreements, our emulation and prototyping hardware sale or lease agreements, revenue recognition policies and results of operations, please refer to the discussion under “Critical Accounting Estimates” under Part II, Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

Customer service and support is critical to the adoption and successful use of our products. We provide our customers with technical support and maintenance to facilitate their use of our software, hardware and IP solutions.

Our education services offerings can be customized and include training programs that are delivered online, app-based, or in a classroom setting. The content of these offerings ranges from the latest design techniques to methodologies for using the most recent features of our products. The primary focus of education services is to accelerate our customers’ path to productivity in the use of our products.

We offer a number of services, including services related to methodology, education and hosted design solutions. These services may be sold separately or sold and performed in conjunction with the license, sale or lease of our products. As necessary, specialized design services engineers are assigned to internal R&D projects associated with our design IP business.

As part of our services offerings, we design advanced ICs, develop custom IP and help customers address design challenges. This enables us to target and accelerate the development of new software technology and products to satisfy current and future design requirements.

We offer engineering services to collaborate with our customers in the design of complex ICs and the implementation of key design capabilities, including low power design, IC packaging and board design, functional verification, digital implementation, analog/mixed-signal design and system-level design. The customers for these services primarily consist of semiconductor and systems companies developing products for the consumer, hyperscale computing, 5G communications, mobile, automotive, aerospace and defense, industrial and life science vertical sectors. These ICs range from digital SoCs and analog and RF designs to complex mixed-signal ICs.

The Cadence Cloud portfolio, consisting of Cadence-managed and customer-managed environments for electronic product and life sciences companies using the scalability of the cloud, continues to expand, with additional cloud-based and software as a service (“SaaS”) products added or under development in fiscal 2023, including cloud-based platforms for e-commerce and molecular sciences. Contractual arrangements with customers for both environments are generally time-based, similar to the on-premises software license arrangements described above and may also include usage-based terms.

In delivering methodology services, we leverage our experience and knowledge of design techniques, our products, leading practices and different design environments to improve the productivity of our customers’ engineering teams. Depending on the customers’ projects and needs, we work with customers using outsourced, consultative and collaborative offerings.

Revenue, and revenue as a percentage of total revenue, from our product and maintenance and services offerings for the last three fiscal years were as follows:

Recurring revenue includes revenue recognized over time from our software arrangements, services, royalties, maintenance on IP licenses and hardware, and operating leases of hardware. Recurring revenue also includes revenue recognized at varying points in time over the term of other arrangements with non-cancelable commitments, whereby the customer commits to a fixed dollar amount over a specified period of time that can be used to purchase from a list of products or services. These arrangements do not meet the definition of a revenue contract until the customer executes a separate selection form to identify the products and services that they are purchasing. Each separate selection form under the arrangement is treated as an individual contract and accounted for based on the respective performance obligations.

The remainder of our revenue is recognized at a point in time and is characterized as up-front revenue. Up-front revenue is primarily generated by sales of emulation and prototyping hardware and individual IP licenses. The percentage of our recurring and up-front revenue is impacted by delivery of hardware and IP products to our customers in any single fiscal period.

For additional information and analysis on our revenue, including revenue by geography, see the discussion under “Results of Operations” under Part II, Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” For our fiscal 2023 results of operations and our financial position as of December 31, 2023, see Part IV, Item 15, “Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules.”

Revenue allocated to remaining performance obligations represents the transaction price allocated to the performance obligations that are unsatisfied, or partially unsatisfied, which includes unearned revenue and amounts that will be invoiced and recognized as revenue in future periods. We have elected to exclude the potential future royalty receipts from the remaining performance obligations. Contracted but unsatisfied performance obligations were approximately $6.0 billion as of December 31, 2023, which included $0.4 billion of non-cancelable commitments from customers where actual product selection and quantities of specific products or services are to be determined by customers at a later date.

We estimate our remaining performance obligations at a point in time. Actual amounts and timing of revenue recognition may differ from these estimates largely due to changes in actual installation and delivery dates, as well as contract renewals, modifications and terminations. As of December 31, 2023, we expected to recognize 56% of the contracted but unsatisfied performance obligations, excluding non-cancelable commitments, as revenue over the next 12 months, 39% over the next 13 to 36 months and the remainder thereafter.

We generally market our products and provide services to existing and prospective customers through a direct sales force consisting of salespeople and applications engineers. Applications engineers provide technical pre-sales and post-sales support for our products. Due to the complexity of many of our products and the system design process, the sales cycle is generally long, requiring up to six months or longer. During the sales cycle, our direct sales force generally provides technical presentations, product demonstrations and support for on-site customer evaluation of our solutions. We also promote our products and services through advertising, marketing automation, trade shows, public relations and the internet. We selectively utilize value-added resellers to broaden our reach and reduce cost of sales. Our OrCAD products and certain Allegro products are primarily marketed through these channels. With respect to international sales, we generally market and support our products and services through our subsidiaries. We also use a third-party distributor to license our products and services to certain customers in Japan.

Our future performance depends on our ability to innovate, commercialize newly developed solutions and enhance and maintain our current products. The primary areas of our R&D align with our product categories discussed above. We must continuously adapt our products to solve new or increased physics challenges that arise with each successive process node and address the increase in complexity that is introduced by the resulting much larger designs. We must also keep pace with our customers’ technical developments, satisfy industry standards and meet our customers’ increasingly demanding performance, productivity, quality and predictability requirements. Therefore, we expect to continue to make significant investments in R&D.

Our emulation and prototyping hardware, including all individual PCBs, custom ICs and FPGA-based prototyping components, is manufactured, assembled and tested by subcontractors before delivery to our customers. Software and documentation are primarily distributed to customers by secure electronic delivery.

Our success depends, in part, upon our proprietary technology. We generally rely on patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secret laws, licenses and restrictive agreements to establish and protect our proprietary rights in technology and products. Many of our products include software or other IP licensed from third parties. We may have to seek new licenses or renew existing licenses for third-party software and other IP in the future. As part of performing engineering services for customers, our engineering services business uses certain software and other IP licensed from third parties, including that of our competitors.

We are subject to a variety of federal, state, local and foreign laws and regulations relating to our business and operations. These include, but are not limited to, laws and regulations related to trade controls, anti-corruption and anti-bribery, and data privacy and data protection, as well as antitrust, competition, employment, income taxes and the environment.

The laws and regulations to which we are subject are complex and may change or develop over time, sometimes with limited or no advance notice. Developments or other changes in laws or regulations or how they are interpreted or enforced have had, and may continue to have, a negative impact on our business and increase our compliance-related expenditures. For additional information regarding risks related to laws and regulations, including existing restrictions imposed by BIS, as well as international relations, see Item 1A, “Risk Factors.”

We compete most frequently with Synopsys, Inc., Siemens EDA, and ANSYS, Inc., and also with numerous other tools providers, electronics device manufacturers with their own EDA capabilities, technical or computational software companies, electronics design and consulting companies and other IP companies. These include U.S. based companies such as Keysight Technologies, Inc., Schrödinger, Inc. and CEVA, Inc. and foreign companies such as Altium Limited (Australia) and Zuken Ltd. (Japan) and emerging competitors in China like Huada Empyrean, Xpeedic, X-EPIC, Primarius Technologies, Univista and Giga-DA. Some of our competitors have made or may make acquisitions and/or have entered or may enter into partnerships or other strategic relationships which may alter their ability to compete with us.

Certain competitive factors in the engineering services business differ from those of the products businesses. While we compete with other computational software companies in the engineering services business, our principal competitors in this area include independent engineering service businesses. Many of these companies are also customers, and therefore use our product offerings in the delivery of their services or products.

For more information on risks related to competitive factors affecting our business, see the relevant discussions throughout Item 1A, “Risk Factors.”

Our future success is inextricably linked to our ability to attract, retain and develop exceptional talent globally. To facilitate talent attraction and retention, we invest in key initiatives including, but not limited to, furthering diversity, equity and inclusion, physical and mental health, and talent development. To measure engagement and collect feedback from our employees, we administer regular employee engagement surveys. Our core cultural tenet is “One Team – One Cadence,” highlighting that seamless teamwork is critical to making Cadence a great place to work for all.

We believe that a high-performing, inclusive culture is a competitive differentiator and crucial to our business' success. Cadence leaders are tasked with creating and sustaining our culture and therefore, they are measured on their contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion, attraction, development and engagement of high-caliber talent, and advancing our sustainability objectives.

We believe our employees represent the best and brightest in our industry, and the talent we select to be a part of our team defines our culture and success. As of December 31, 2023, we had approximately 11,200 employees. Our global workforce is highly educated, technical and specialized, with a substantial majority of employees working in engineering roles.

We believe that workforce diversity, equity and inclusion advance high performance and innovation. We recognize that gender and racial disparities remain a challenge in the technology field, and with a high proportion of technical employees, we are focused on addressing this issue and have appointed executive sponsors to drive this focus throughout our company. Some of our current programs and initiatives aimed at addressing this issue include:

We strive to create a safe and rewarding environment to enable our employees to develop the innovations necessary for our sustained success.

With the aim of providing for both the physical and mental health of our employees, we offer a variety of benefits that go beyond traditional health insurance. Our U.S. health and well-being benefits include fertility benefits, coverage for transgender employees undergoing medical treatment, expanded new parent leave, adoption and surrogacy benefits, financial planning and coaching services and legal services. We also provide training and tools for stress management, time management, conflict resolution and emotional well-being.

To inspire and recognize our employees, we offer what we believe are competitive compensation and benefits programs. Our compensation programs link employee compensation to our business and individual performance. We also offer a semi-annual bonus program, 401(k) match, Employee Stock Purchase Plan and equity compensation. In addition, our employees are eligible to receive monetary awards from their colleagues through our peer-to-peer recognition program.

To help employees succeed in their current roles, pursue their passions and develop the skills necessary for advancement, we provide formal training programs and curriculums in addition to on-the-job training. Our high performance culture platform provides our employees with valuable resources such as a comprehensive online Learning Management program with training and development tools on a broad range of topics and skills. We also offer tuition reimbursement opportunities to employees to further hone their skills.

We believe it is important to create meaningful opportunities for employees to connect and contribute to their communities. We provide paid volunteer time off, charitable contribution matching, company-wide volunteer campaigns, international service immersion projects and grants to employees who are giving back to their communities.

The Cadence Giving Foundation, established in 2021, is committed to providing Cadence employees and others a means through which to carry out their volunteer activities as well as making an impact on our focus areas of environmental sustainability and climate change, diversity, equity and inclusion, and science, technology, engineering and math (“STEM”) education. This is accomplished through various means, including grant making and partnerships with non-profit organizations committed to addressing these issues. We also make charitable contributions consisting of Cadence technology product donations.

We believe that, in general, the best and brightest talent is inclined to build a career with a responsible organization that positively impacts society. We recognize that climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. We are focused on doing our part to contribute to the health of the planet by actively investing in initiatives to reduce our environmental footprint. We encourage you to review our 2022 Environmental, Social, and Governance ("ESG") Report available through our website, and our 2023 ESG Report when released, for more information on our ESG targets, initiatives and progress. The contents of our ESG Reports are not part of or incorporated by reference into this Annual Report.

Our headquarters is located at 2655 Seely Avenue, San Jose, California 95134. Our telephone number is (408) 943-1234. We use our website at www.cadence.com to communicate important information about our company, including news releases and financial information. Our website permits investors to subscribe to email notification alerts when we post new material information on our website. We also make available on our investor relations webpage, free of charge, copies of our SEC filings and submissions, which can be found at the SEC’s website, www.sec.gov, as soon as reasonably practicable after electronically filing or furnishing such documents with the SEC. Stockholders may also request copies of these documents by writing to our Corporate Secretary at the address above. Website references are provided throughout this document for convenience only. The contents of these websites do not constitute a part of this Annual Report and shall not be deemed incorporated by reference into this Annual Report unless expressly noted.

Historically, our fiscal years were 52- or 53-week periods ending on the Saturday closest to December 31. During fiscal 2022, our Board of Directors approved a change in our fiscal year end from the Saturday closest to December 31 of each year to December 31 of each year. The fiscal year change became effective beginning with our 2023 fiscal year, which began on January 1, 2023. Both fiscal year 2022 and 2021, which are included in this report for comparative purposes, represent 52-week periods. Our first three fiscal quarters end on March 31, June 30, and September 30.

The following table provides information regarding our executive officers as of February 13, 2024:

Our executive officers are appointed by our Board of Directors and serve at the discretion of our Board of Directors.

ANIRUDH DEVGAN has served as Chief Executive Officer of Cadence since December 2021 and President of Cadence since November 2017. From May 2012 to November 2017, Dr. Devgan held several positions at Cadence, most recently as Executive Vice President, Research and Development from March 2017 to November 2017 and Senior Vice President, Research and Development from November 2013 to March 2017. Prior to joining Cadence, from May 2005 to March 2012, Dr. Devgan served as Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the Custom Design Business Unit at Magma Design Automation, Inc., an EDA company. Dr. Devgan has a B.Tech. in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

JOHN M. WALL has served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Cadence since October 2017. From June 1997 to October 2017, Mr. Wall held several positions at Cadence, most recently as Corporate Vice President and Corporate Controller from April 2016 to October 2017, Vice President, Finance and Operations, Worldwide Revenue Accounting and Sales Finance from 2015 to 2016 and Vice President, Finance and Operations, EMEA and Worldwide Revenue Accounting from 2005 to 2015. Mr. Wall has an NCBS from the Institute of Technology, Tralee and is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

THOMAS P. BECKLEY has served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Custom IC and PCB Group of Cadence since 2018. From September 2012 to September 2018, Mr. Beckley served as Senior Vice President, Research and Development of Cadence. From April 2004 to September 2012, Mr. Beckley served as Corporate Vice President, Research and Development of Cadence. Prior to joining Cadence, Mr. Beckley served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Neolinear, Inc., a developer of auto-interactive and automated analog/RF tools and solutions for mixed-signal design that Cadence acquired in April 2004. Mr. Beckley has a B.S. in mathematics and physics from Kalamazoo College and an M.B.A. from Vanderbilt University.

PAUL CUNNINGHAM has served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the System Verification Group of Cadence since March 2021. From August 2011 to March 2021, Dr. Cunningham held several positions at Cadence, most recently as Corporate Vice President of the System Verification Group beginning January 2018. Prior to joining Cadence, Dr. Cunningham was co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Azuro, Inc., a clock concurrent optimization company, that Cadence acquired in July 2011. Dr. Cunningham has an M.A. and Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

KARNA NISEWANER has served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Cadence since February 2024. From May 2011 to February 2024, Ms. Nisewaner held several positions at Cadence, most recently as Corporate Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary beginning in September 2022. Prior to joining Cadence, Ms. Nisewaner held in-house counsel roles at Intuit from 2007 to 2011 and IBM from 2003 to 2007. Ms. Nisewaner was in private practice focused on IP at Finnegan, Henderson, Farbow, Garrett, and Dunner, LLP from 2001 to 2003. Ms. Nisewaner has a B.S.E. in civil engineering and operations research from Princeton University and a J.D. from UCLA School of Law.

CHIN-CHI TENG has served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Digital and Signoff Group of Cadence since September 2018. From January 2002 to September 2018, Dr. Teng held several positions at Cadence, most recently as Corporate Vice President, Research and Development from June 2015 to September 2018, and Vice President, Research and Development from March 2009 to June 2015. Dr. Teng has a B.S. in electrical engineering from the National Taiwan University and a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

NEIL ZAMAN has served as Chief Revenue Officer of Cadence since October 2020 and as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations since September 2015. From October 1999 to September 2015, Mr. Zaman held several positions at Cadence, most recently as Corporate Vice President, North America Field Operations. Prior to joining Cadence, Mr. Zaman held positions at Phoenix Technologies Ltd., a developer of core system software, and IBM Corporation, a technology and consulting company. Mr. Zaman has a B.S. in finance from California State University, Hayward.

Historical results of operations should not be viewed as reliable indicators of our future performance. Various factors affect our operating results, and some of them are not within our control. Our operating results for any period are affected by the mix of products and services sold in a given period and the timing of revenue recognition, particularly for our emulation and prototyping hardware and IP products. In addition, we have recorded net losses in the past and may record net losses in the future. Also, our cash flows from operating activities have and will continue to fluctuate due to a number of factors, including the timing of our billings, collections, disbursements and tax payments.

A substantial portion of the product revenue related to our hardware business and our IP offerings is recognized upon delivery, and our forecasted revenue results are based, in part, on our expectations of hardware and IP to be delivered in a particular quarter. Therefore, changes in hardware and IP bookings or deliveries relative to expectations will have a more immediate impact on our revenue than changes in software or services bookings, for which revenue is generally recognized over time.

As we continue to expand our IP offerings, a portion of the revenue related to our IP bookings will be deferred until we complete and deliver the licensed IP to our customers. As a result, costs related to the research and development of IP may be incurred prior to the recognition of the related revenue.

Revenue related to our hardware and IP products is inherently difficult to predict because sales of our hardware and IP products depend on the commencement of new projects for the design and development of complex ICs and systems by our customers, our customers’ willingness to expend capital to deploy our new and existing hardware or IP products in those projects and the availability of our new and existing hardware or IP products for delivery. Therefore, our hardware or IP sales may be delayed or may decrease if our customers delay or cancel projects because their spending is constrained or if there are problems or delays with the supply, delivery or installation of our hardware or IP products or our hardware suppliers. Moreover, the market environment for hardware and IP is highly competitive, and our customers may choose to purchase a competitor’s hardware or IP product based on cost, performance or other factors. These factors may result in lower revenue, which would have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and cash flows.

A substantial proportion of our software licenses yield revenue recognized over time, which may make it difficult for us to rapidly increase our revenue in future fiscal periods and means that a decrease in orders in a given period would negatively affect our revenue in future periods.

We plan our operating expenses based on forecasted revenue, expected business needs and other factors such as inflation. These expenses and the effect of long-term commitments are relatively fixed in the short term. Bookings and the related revenue are harder to forecast in a difficult economic environment. If we experience a shortfall in bookings, our operating results could differ from our expectations because we may not be able to quickly reduce our expenses in response to short-term business changes. Our operating expenses are also impacted by economic conditions, such as inflation. Unexpected increases in inflation could cause our expenses to increase at a rate faster than our product pricing to recover such increases.

The methods, estimates and judgments that we use in applying our accounting policies have a significant impact on our results of operations (see “Critical Accounting Estimates” under Part II, Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”). Such methods, estimates and judgments are subject to substantial risks, uncertainties and assumptions, and factors may arise over time that may lead us to change our methods, estimates and judgments. Changes in those methods, estimates and judgments could significantly affect our results of operations.

Purchases of our products and services are dependent upon the commencement of new design projects by IC manufacturers and electronics systems companies. The IC and electronics systems industries are cyclical and are characterized by constant and rapid technological change, rapid product obsolescence and price erosion, evolving standards, short product life cycles and wide fluctuations in product supply and demand.

The IC and electronics systems industries have also experienced significant downturns in connection with, or in anticipation of, maturing product cycles of both these industries’ and their customers’ products. The current outlook for the global economy is uncertain and may result in a decrease in spending on our products and services despite recent growth.

Uncertainty caused by the recent challenging global political and economic conditions, including the effects of the rise in inflation and interest rates, bank failures, U.S. deficit concerns, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East, adverse changes to international relationships among countries in which we or our customers operate or do business, protectionist measures or decline in corporate or consumer spending could negatively impact our customers’ businesses, reducing the number of new chip designs and their overall research and development spending, including their spending on our products and services, and as a result decrease demand for our products and services. Adverse developments that affect financial institutions, transactional counterparties or other third parties, such as bank failures and protracted U.S. federal debt ceiling negotiations, or concerns or speculation about any similar events or risks, have led and could lead to further credit downgrades and market-wide liquidity problems, which in turn may cause customers and other third parties to become unable to meet their obligations under various types of financial arrangements as well as general disruptions or instability in the financial markets. Public health emergencies, like the COVID-19 pandemic, and reactionary measures by governments and businesses have also had, and could in the future have, the effect of curtailing economic activity and causing substantial volatility and disruption in global markets. Decreased bookings for our products and services, customer bankruptcies, consolidation among our customers, or problems or delays with our hardware suppliers or with the supply or delivery of our hardware products could also adversely affect our ability to grow our business or adversely affect our future revenue and financial results.

There is inherent risk, based on the complex relationships between certain countries and within regions, that political, diplomatic or military events could result in trade disruptions and other disruptions in the markets and industries we serve and our supply chain. A significant disruption in any area where we or our customers operate or do business could reduce customer demand, make our products and services more expensive or unavailable for customers, increase the cost of our products and services, have a negative impact on customer spending, make our products less competitive, or otherwise have a materially adverse impact on our future revenue and profits, our customers’ and suppliers’ businesses, and our results of operations. For example, the ongoing geopolitical and economic uncertainty between the United States and China, where we have derived an increased percentage of our revenue, the unknown impact of current and future U.S. and Chinese trade regulations, and geopolitical risks with respect to Taiwan, which serves as a central hub for the technology industry supply chain, could, directly or indirectly, materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our future business and financial results, including demand for our products and services, are subject to considerable uncertainties that could impact our stock price. If economic conditions or international relationships among countries in which we do business deteriorate, or, in particular, if semiconductor or electronics systems industry revenues do not grow, including as a result of a global semiconductor shortage, the ability to export or import products or services by the semiconductor or electronics systems industry is adversely restricted, or our supplies of hardware components and products are subject to problems or delays, we may be adversely affected. Further, political or economic conflicts between various global actors, and responsive measures that have been or could be taken, have created and can further create significant global economic uncertainty that could prolong or expand such conflicts, which could have a lasting impact on regional and global economies and harm our business and operating results.

We must comply with regulations of the United States and of certain other countries in selling or shipping our products and transferring our technology outside the United States, to foreign nationals (including foreign nationals within the United States) or across borders. Changes in these regulations or restrictions due to changes in trade relationships with the United States, including new tariffs, trade protection measures, import or export licensing requirements, sanctions, trade embargoes and other trade barriers, could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

For example, the BIS maintains and frequently updates the “Entity List,” which limits our ability to deliver products and services to these entities, some of which are our customers. When customers are on the Entity List or are subject to new or expanded trade restrictions, such as the recent implementation of controls on advanced computing ICs, computer commodities that contain such ICs, and certain semiconductor manufacturing items, as well as controls on transactions involving items for supercomputer and semiconductor manufacturing end-users, it has a negative effect on our ability to sell products and provide services to these customers. In addition, the issuance of new or expanded trade restrictions, such as the continued expansion of the military end-user and military end-use rule, the foreign-produced direct product rules, or any other rule that prevents a class of commodities, software or technology from export to any specific country or countries without a license, could increase our costs or expenses. Anticipated or actual changes in trade restrictions could also affect customer purchasing behaviors. Entity List restrictions and other trade restrictions may also encourage customers to seek substitute products from our competitors, including a growing class of foreign competitors and open source alternatives, that are not subject to these restrictions or to develop their own solutions, thereby decreasing our long-term competitiveness. In particular, China’s stated national policy to be a global leader in all segments of the semiconductor industry by 2030 has resulted in and may continue to cause increased competitive capability in China. In addition, although customers on the Entity List are not prohibited from paying (and we are not restricted from collecting) for products we previously delivered to them (in compliance with applicable law), the credit risks associated with outstanding receivables from customers on the Entity List – including receivables from anti-piracy enforcement efforts and litigation settlements – and other trade restrictions could increase.

We cannot predict whether or when any changes will be made that eliminate or decrease these limitations on our ability to sell products and provide services to these Entity List customers or other customers impacted by other trade restrictions. We are unable to predict the duration of the export restrictions imposed with respect to any particular customer, technology, country or region or the long-term effects on our business or our customers’ businesses. In addition, there may be indirect impacts to our

Failure to obtain export licenses when required or restrictions on trade imposed by the United States or other countries could harm our business by rendering us unable to sell or ship products and transfer our technology outside of the United States or across borders. Although we have implemented risk-based policies and procedures that are reasonably designed to comply with all applicable trade restrictions, we and governmental authorities have had and may in the future have reason to inquire into particular sales. Specifically, in February 2021, we received an administrative subpoena from BIS requesting the production of records in connection with certain sales to our customers in China. In November 2023, we received a related subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) that also requested information regarding our business activity in China. We have been and will continue cooperating with BIS and DOJ in responding to the subpoenas and their ongoing reviews. These matters are subject to uncertainties and the outcomes of these and other proceedings that may occur are difficult to predict. The laws and policies of the United States and other countries in this area are evolving and changing, and we have experienced and may continue to experience challenges in complying with new rules as they become effective. The application and interpretation of these laws and policies can also be uncertain and change over time, and we may need to adjust our policies and procedures accordingly. Any failure or alleged failure to comply with these laws and policies could have negative consequences, including significant legal costs, government investigations, penalties, denial of export privileges and debarment from participation in U.S. government contracts, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our operations, reputation and financial condition.

In addition to export control laws, our global operations are subject to numerous U.S. and foreign laws and regulations, including those related to anti-corruption, anti-bribery, tax, corporate governance, financial and other disclosures, competition, antitrust, data privacy, data protection and employment. These laws and regulations are complex and may have differing or conflicting legal standards, making compliance difficult and costly, and changes to these laws may require us to make significant changes to our business operations that may adversely affect our business overall. The policies and procedures we have implemented to assist our compliance with these laws and regulations do not provide complete assurance that our employees, contractors, agents or partners will not violate such laws and regulations. Any violation individually or in the aggregate could have a material adverse effect on our operations, reputation and financial condition.

As part of our business strategy, we invest in, and acquire complementary businesses, joint ventures, services and technologies and IP rights, some of which may be material to our financial condition and operating results. We continue to engage in investments and acquisitions and evaluate such opportunities and expect to continue to make such investments and acquisitions in the future. There can be no guarantee that we will be able to find and identify desirable investment or acquisition targets, and we may not be successful in entering into an agreement with any particular target.

Acquisitions and other transactions, arrangements and investments involve numerous risks and potential operating difficulties and expenditures, including:

Any of these risks could harm our business or negatively impact our results of operations. In addition, to facilitate acquisitions or investments, we may seek additional equity or debt financing, which may not be available on terms favorable to us or at all, which may affect our ability to complete subsequent acquisitions or investments, and which may affect the risks of owning our common stock. For example, if we finance acquisitions or investments by issuing equity or convertible securities, or use such securities as consideration, our existing stockholders may be diluted. If we finance acquisitions or investments through debt financing, we could face constraints related to the terms (including restrictive covenants) of, and repayment obligation related to, the incurrence of indebtedness. Acquisitions or investments may also require the expenditure of substantial cash resources. These arrangements may impact our liquidity, financial position and results of operations or increase dilution of our stockholders’ equity interests in the company, all of which could adversely affect the market price of our common stock. Acquisitions are also often dilutive to margins and earnings, at least initially. In addition, in certain cases we may be required to consolidate one or more of our strategic investee's financial results into ours. Fluctuations in any such investee's financial results, due to general market conditions, bank failures or otherwise, could negatively affect our consolidated financial condition, results of operations, cash flows or the price of our common stock.

Our ability to acquire other businesses or technologies, make strategic investments or integrate acquired businesses effectively may be impaired by trade tensions and increased global scrutiny of foreign investments and acquisitions and investments in the technology sector. The United States and several other countries have adopted, or are considering adopting, restrictions on transactions involving foreign investments. Antitrust authorities in the United States and a number of countries have also reviewed acquisitions and investments in the technology industry with increased scrutiny. Governments may continue to adopt or tighten restrictions of this nature, some of which may apply to acquisitions, investments or integrations of businesses by us, and such restrictions or government actions could negatively impact our business and financial results.

There are numerous patents relating to our business and ecosystem. New patents are being issued at a rapid rate and are owned by computational software companies as well as entities and individuals outside the computational software field, including parties whose income is primarily derived from infringement-related licensing and litigation. It is not always practicable or possible to determine in advance whether a product or any of its components infringes the patent rights of others. As a result, from time to time, we have been and may continue to be compelled to respond to IP infringement claims to protect our rights or defend a customer’s rights consistent with the terms of our license agreements.

IP infringement and misappropriation claims, including contractual defense reimbursement obligations related to third-party claims against our customers, regardless of merit, could consume valuable management time, result in costly litigation or cause product shipment delays, all of which could seriously harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

IP claims or litigation has compelled and could compel us to do one or more of the following:

If we were compelled to take any of these actions, our business, reputation and operating results might suffer.

Our success depends, in part, upon our proprietary technology and our ability to secure, protect and enforce our IP rights in our proprietary technology. We generally rely on a combination of patent, copyright and trademark law, trade secret protection and confidentiality or licenses agreements with our employers, contractors, customers, business partners and others to establish and protect our proprietary rights in technology and products. Despite the precautions we may take to protect our IP rights, from time to time third parties challenge, invalidate or circumvent these safeguards. Our patents and other IP rights may not provide us with sufficient competitive advantages. Patents may not be issued on any of our pending applications and our issued patents may not be sufficiently broad to protect every feature of our technology. In addition, we believe that the protection of our trademark rights is an important factor in product recognition, protecting our brand and maintaining goodwill, and if we do not adequately protect our rights in our trademarks from infringement, any goodwill that we have developed in those trademarks could be lost or impaired, which could harm our brand and our business. Furthermore, the laws of foreign countries may not protect our proprietary rights in those countries to the same extent as applicable law protects these rights in the United States, and we may encounter difficulties in our attempts to protect our IP in foreign jurisdictions, particularly with respect to trade secret rights and including as a result of impacts from changes in international trade relationships. The protection of our IP may require the expenditure of significant financial and managerial resources. Moreover, the steps we take to protect our IP may not adequately protect our rights, or deter or prevent third parties from infringing or misappropriating our proprietary rights. Litigation brought to protect and enforce our IP rights could be costly, time consuming and distracting to management. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our IP rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our IP rights, which could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our IP rights.

Many of our products include software or other IP licensed from third parties. We may have to seek new or renew existing licenses for such software and other IP. Our engineering services business holds licenses to certain software and other IP owned by third parties, including that of our competitors. In addition, we use open source software in our products, and due to uncertainties regarding the interpretation of open source software licenses, there is a risk that our use of open source software is inconsistent with what the copyright owners had intended, which could lead to disputes and enforcement actions, including demands that we release applicable source code, and we may be forced to re-engineer our products or incur additional costs to replace the affected open source software. Our failure to obtain third party software, other IP licenses or other IP rights that are necessary or helpful for our business on favorable terms, or our need to engage in litigation over these licenses or rights, could seriously harm our business, operating results or financial condition. In the case of infringement or misappropriation caused by technology that we obtain from third parties, any indemnification or other contractual protections we obtain from such third parties, if any, may be insufficient to cover the liabilities we incur as a result of such infringement or misappropriation.

We are making significant investments in AI initiatives, including building out our generative AI platform and applications, to enable our customers to optimize their products’ performance, increase the productivity of their design teams and workflows and develop AI solutions themselves. AI technologies are complex and rapidly evolving, and we face significant competition from other companies. Moreover, the long-term trajectory of this technological trend is unknown. If we fail to develop and timely offer such products or keep pace with the product offerings of our competitors, or if demand for such products does not grow as anticipated, our business could be adversely affected. We may incur significant costs, resources, investments, delays and not achieve a return on investment or capitalize on opportunities presented by AI.

The introduction of AI technologies into new or existing products may result in new or enhanced governmental or regulatory scrutiny, litigation, confidentiality or security risks, ethical concerns, or other complications that could adversely affect our business, reputation or financial results. Existing laws and regulations may apply to us or our customers in new ways, and new laws and regulations may be instituted, the effects of which are difficult to predict. The IP ownership and license rights, including copyright, surrounding AI technologies has not been fully addressed by U.S. courts or other federal or state laws or regulations, and the use or adoption of AI technologies into our products and services may result in exposure to claims of copyright infringement or other IP misappropriation. In addition, the rapid evolution of AI technologies requires the application of resources to help ensure that AI is implemented responsibly in order to minimize unintended, harmful impact. If the development or use of AI technologies by us or our customers draws controversy due to perceived or actual impact on human rights, IP, privacy, security, employment, the environment or in other social contexts, we may experience brand or reputational harm, competitive harm or legal liability.

We rely on hardware, software, digital infrastructure and computing networks for both internal and customer-facing operations that are critical to our business (collectively, "IT Systems"). We own and manage certain IT Systems but also rely on third parties for IT Systems and related products and services, including cloud computing. In addition, we and certain third-party providers collect, maintain and process data about our customers, employees, business partners and others, including personally identifiable information, as well as proprietary data such as trade secrets (collectively, "Confidential Information").

We face numerous, evolving cybersecurity risks that threaten the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our IT Systems, Confidential Information, products and services, including from diverse threat actors, such as state-sponsored organizations, opportunistic hackers and malicious insiders, as well as through diverse attack vectors, such as social engineering (including phishing), malware (including ransomware) and denial-of-service attacks, and due to human or technological error, such as misconfigurations, “bugs” or other vulnerabilities in software or hardware. We have experienced cyberattacks and other security breaches in the past and will continue to experience varying degrees of attacks and incidents in the future.

A significant cyberattack on our or a third-party provider’s IT Systems could result in any or all of the following: compromise to our Cadence Cloud portfolio, which includes both our managed and customer-managed environments, and our data centers and those of our customers and end users; corruption or stealing of Confidential Information such as proprietary information related to our business, products, services and infrastructure or personally identifiable information; manipulation or stealing of financial data and assets; and/or disruption of our systems and services and those of our customers and others. Breaches of our security measures and vulnerabilities in our or third-party IT Systems or products or services expose us to a risk of loss or misuse, loss of financial assets, business interruption, regulatory investigations, litigation and other potential liability. There can be no assurance that our cybersecurity risk management strategy, program, policies, processes and controls will be fully implemented, complied with or effective in protecting any systems or information.

Techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage information systems change frequently and include zero-day software vulnerabilities that are unknown until exploited by threat actors. Cyberattacks are expected to accelerate on a global basis in frequency and magnitude as threat actors are increasingly sophisticated in using techniques and tools – including artificial intelligence – that circumvent controls, evade detection and remove forensic evidence. As a result, we may be unable to promptly or effectively detect, investigate, remediate or recover from future attacks or incidents, or to avoid a material adverse impact to our IT Systems, Confidential Information or business. Furthermore, we have acquired and continue to acquire companies with cybersecurity vulnerabilities and/or less sophisticated security measures, which exposes us to increased cybersecurity, operational and financial risk. Moreover, hardware, software or applications we develop or procure from third parties or through open source solutions may contain defects in design or manufacture or other vulnerabilities and be susceptible to hacking or misappropriation. In addition, certain of our third-party vendors use cloud storage of information as part of their services and product offerings, creating risk of misappropriation of our Confidential Information by third parties.

In the event of an actual or perceived breach of our security, or a vendor's security, the market perception of the effectiveness of our security measures could be harmed, legal or regulatory actions could be initiated against us and we could suffer damage to our reputation or our business, or lose existing customers and our ability to obtain new customers (including government customers), incur significant restoration, remediation and compliance costs, or suffer harm to our financial condition. The loss, misuse or theft of personal data collected, used, stored or transferred by us, vendors or other third parties in the course of running our business could result in business or financial harm, damage to our reputation and legal or regulatory proceedings. Also, we cannot guarantee that any costs and liabilities incurred in relation to an attack or incident will be covered by our existing insurance policies or that applicable insurance will be available to us in the future on economically reasonable terms or at all.

A significant amount of our revenue is derived from our international operations, and we have offices throughout the world, including key research and development facilities outside of the United States. Our international operations are subject to a number of risks, including:

Some of our international research and development and other facilities are in parts of the world where there is a greater risk of business interruption as a result of political instability, terrorist acts or military conflicts than businesses located domestically. Damage to or disruptions at our international research and development facilities could have a significant adverse effect on our ability to develop and improve products. We are not insured for losses or interruptions caused by acts of war, among other exclusions. Furthermore, our operations are dependent upon the connectivity of our operations throughout the world. Activities that interfere with our international connectivity or operations, such as cyber hacking, computer system viruses, natural disasters, public health emergencies, civil unrest or terrorism, could significantly harm our business operations.

In addition, internal controls, policies and procedures and employee training and compliance programs that we have implemented to deter prohibited practices may not prevent our employees, contractors or agents from violating or circumventing our policies and the laws and regulations applicable to our worldwide operations.

We have significant operations outside the United States. Our revenue from international operations as a percentage of total revenue has historically exceeded 50%, and we expect that revenue from our international operations will continue to account for a significant portion of our total revenue. We also transact business in various foreign currencies, although the majority of our revenue contracts worldwide are denominated in U.S. dollars. Approximately one third of our total costs and expenses are transacted in foreign currencies. Volatility of currencies in countries where we conduct business, most notably the U.S. dollar, Chinese renminbi, Japanese yen, European Union euro, British pound and Indian rupee, have had and may in the future have an effect on our revenue or operating results.

Fluctuations in the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and other currencies could seriously affect our business, operating results and financial condition, including due to inflation, devaluations and currency controls. If we price our products and services in a non-U.S. market in the local currency, we receive fewer U.S. dollars when the local currency declines in value relative to the U.S. dollar. If we price our products and services in a non-U.S. market in U.S. dollars, a decrease in value of the local currency relative to the U.S. dollar could result in our prices being uncompetitive in that market. On the other hand, when a foreign currency increases in value relative to the U.S. dollar, it takes more U.S. dollars to purchase the same amount of the foreign currency, which increases our payroll costs and other operating expenses in that region. Our attempts to reduce the effect of foreign currency fluctuations may be unsuccessful, and exchange rate movements may adversely impact our results of operations as expressed in U.S. dollars.

Our business depends upon the continued services, efforts and abilities of our senior management and other key employees. Competition for highly skilled executive officers and employees can be intense, particularly in geographic areas recognized as high technology centers. In addition, competition for qualified personnel, including software engineers, in the EDA, commercial electronics engineering services and IP industries has intensified. Further, increased uncertainty regarding social, political and immigration policies in the United States and abroad may make it difficult to recruit employees with adequate experience; and governmental policies resulting in increased funding of domestic technology companies, such as China’s stated national policy to be a global leader in all segments of the semiconductor industry by 2030, has caused and may continue to cause difficulty in retaining and attracting local talent. We may also experience increased compensation costs that are not offset by either improved productivity or higher sales. We may not be successful in recruiting new personnel and in training, retaining and motivating existing personnel. Our ability to do so also depends on how well we maintain a strong workplace culture that is attractive to employees, particularly as we transition employees back to the office generally three times a week based on our hybrid work model, and hiring and training of new employees may be adversely impacted by global economic uncertainty. From time to time, there may be changes in our management team resulting from the hiring and departure of executive officers, and as a result, we may experience disruption to our business that may harm our operating results and our relationships with our employees, customers and suppliers may be adversely affected.

To attract, retain and motivate individuals with the requisite expertise, we may be required to grant large numbers of stock options or other stock-based incentive awards, which may be dilutive to existing stockholders and increase compensation expense, and pay significant base salaries and cash bonuses, which could harm our operating results. The high cost of training new employees, not fully utilizing these employees, or losing trained employees to competing employers could also reduce our operating margins and harm our business or operating results.

We have substantial cash requirements in the United States and significant operations outside the United States. As of December 31, 2023, approximately 55% of our cash and cash equivalents balance was held by subsidiaries outside the United States. We cannot accurately predict the full impact that evolving macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions may have on our cash flows. In addition, although the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Tax Act”) has reduced the tax impact of repatriation of foreign earnings, there are still administrative processes associated with repatriation of foreign earnings that could affect the timing of returning cash to the U.S. from non-U.S. jurisdictions. Accordingly, if our U.S. cash is insufficient to meet our future

Generally, we have a long sales cycle that can extend up to six months or longer. The complexity and expense associated with our products and services generally require a lengthy customer education, evaluation and approval process. Consequently, we may incur substantial expenses and devote significant management effort and expense to develop potential relationships that do not result in agreements or revenue and may prevent us from pursuing other opportunities. In addition, sales of our products and services have been and may in the future be delayed if customers delay approval or commencement of projects because of the timing of customers’ competitive evaluation processes or customers’ budgetary constraints and budget cycles. Long sales cycles for hardware products subject us to a number of significant risks over which we have limited control, including insufficient, excess or obsolete inventory, variations in inventory valuation and fluctuations in quarterly operating results. In addition, if our customers build elevated inventory levels, we could experience a decrease in short-term and/or long-term demand for our hardware products. Further, economic conditions, including economic downturn and rising inflation, may have a delayed impact on our results and financial condition as a result of our long sales cycles. Similarly, such macroeconomic conditions may impact our long sales cycles by making it difficult for our customers to plan future business activities, which could cause customers to limit spending or delay decision-making.

From time to time, we initiate restructuring plans in an effort to better align our resources with our business strategy. We incur substantial costs to implement restructuring plans, and our restructuring activities subject us to reputational risks and litigation risks and expenses. Our past restructuring plans do not provide any assurance that we will realize anticipated cost savings or other benefits from any restructuring plans we implement in the future. In addition, restructuring plans may have other consequences, such as attrition beyond our planned reduction in workforce, a negative effect on employee morale and productivity or our ability to attract highly skilled employees. Our competitors may also use any future restructuring plans to seek to gain a competitive advantage over us. As a result, restructuring plans may affect our revenue and other operating results.

Our marketable investments include various money market funds and shares of publicly held companies, and may include other investments as well. Weakened financial markets have at times adversely impacted the general credit, liquidity, market prices and interest rates for these and other types of investments. Additionally, changes in monetary policy by the Federal Open Market Committee or other relevant regulators and concerns about the rising U.S. government debt level may cause a decrease in the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar and adversely affect our investment portfolio. We also invest cash in non-marketable equity securities, including shares of privately held entities. The financial market and monetary risks associated with our investment portfolio may have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, liquidity, results of operations or cash flows.

Our corporate headquarters, including certain of our research and development operations and certain of our distribution facilities, and a significant portion of our employees are located in the Silicon Valley area of Northern California, a region known to experience seismic activity and wildfires. Our offices around the world may also be adversely impacted by natural disasters, including those intensified by climate change. Our offices, and those of our customers and suppliers, can be disrupted by droughts, extreme temperatures, fires, flooding and other climate change-related risks, as well as earthquakes, actions by utility providers and other catastrophic events such as an actual or threatened public health emergency. If a catastrophic event occurs at or near our offices or where our employees are located, or utility providers or public health officials take certain actions (e.g., shut off power to our facilities or impose travel restrictions), our operations may be interrupted, which could adversely impact our business and results of operations. If a catastrophic event impacts a significant number of customers, resulting in decreased demand for their and our products, or our ability to provide services and maintenance, our business and results of operations could be adversely impacted.

There has been a trend toward customer consolidation in the semiconductor industry through business combinations, including mergers, asset acquisitions and strategic partnerships. If this trend continues, it could make us more dependent on fewer customers who may be able to exert increased pressure on our prices and other contract terms and could increase the portion of our total sales concentration for any single customer. Customer consolidation activity could also reduce the demand for our products and services if such customers streamline research and development or operations, reduce purchases or delay purchasing decisions. These outcomes could negatively impact our operating results and financial condition.

Our strategy is designed to increase our business among electronic systems companies, which are developing their own ICs and other electronic subsystems. Our strategy is also intended to increase our business among semiconductor companies, which are increasing their contribution to the end products into which their ICs and other electronic subsystems are incorporated. Part of this strategy involves addressing the needs across a variety of vertical sectors including consumer, hyperscale computing, mobile, communications, automotive, aerospace and defense, industrial and life sciences, where increased investment is expected by our customers. Each of these sectors require technologies, expertise, and marketing and operations infrastructure that are application-specific. Our inability to develop or acquire application-specific capabilities could impede our ability to expand our business and ultimately affect our future growth. The following trends may impact the sectors we serve:

If we are unable to respond quickly and successfully to these trends, we may lose our competitive position, and our products or technologies may become obsolete. To compete successfully, we must develop, acquire or license new products and improve our existing products and processes on a schedule that keeps pace with technological developments and the requirements for products addressing a broad spectrum of designers and designer expertise. We must provide frequent and relevant updates to our software products in order to provide substantial benefit to the customer throughout the license periods because of the rapid changes in our customers’ industries. The market must also accept our new and improved products. We must enhance our hardware platforms periodically to reduce the likelihood that a competitor surpasses the capabilities we offer. Our introduction of new products could reduce the demand and revenue of our older products or affect their pricing. We must also be able to support a range of changing computer software, hardware platforms and customer preferences. A transition by our customers to different business models associated with cloud computing technologies could result in reduced revenue. We cannot guarantee that we will be successful in keeping pace with all, or any, of the customer trends.

We invest and expect to continue to invest in research and development for new and existing products, technologies and services in response to our customers’ increasing technological requirements. Such investments may be in related areas, such as technical sales support, and may include increases in employee headcount. These investments may involve significant time, risks and uncertainties, including the risk that the expenses associated with these investments may affect our margins and operating results and that we may not realize the intended benefits of these investments. We believe that we must continue to invest a significant amount of time and resources in our research and development efforts and technical sales support to maintain and improve our competitive position. If we do not achieve the benefits anticipated from these investments, if the achievement of these benefits is delayed, or if customers reduce or slow the need to upgrade or enhance their computational software products and design flows, our revenue and operating results may be adversely affected.

Our customers have and may continue to face challenging financial or operating conditions, including due to macroeconomic conditions or catastrophic events, and delay or default on their payment commitments to us, request to modify contract terms, or modify or cancel plans to license our products. Our customers’ inability to fulfill payment commitments, in turn, could adversely affect our revenue, operating expenses and cash flow. Additionally, from time to time our customers seek to renegotiate pre-existing contractual commitments. Payment defaults by our customers or significant reductions in existing contractual commitments could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and operating results.

For more information about our specific competitors, see “Competition” under Item 1 of Part I of this Annual Report.

Our installed customer base has traditionally generated additional new license, services and maintenance revenues. In future periods, customers may not necessarily license or buy additional products or contract for additional services or maintenance. Our customers, many of which are large semiconductor and systems companies, often have significant bargaining power in negotiations with us. Customer consolidation can reduce the total level of purchases of our software, hardware, IP and services increase customers’ bargaining power in negotiations with their suppliers, including us.

Our reliance on single or a limited number of suppliers and contract manufacturers for certain hardware components and contract manufacturers for production of our emulation and prototyping hardware products has resulted in, and could continue to result in, some product delivery delays and reduced control over contractual terms and quality. In some cases, it may not be practical or feasible to have multiple sources to procure certain key components. We have suffered from, and may continue to suffer from, delays and other disruptions in the supply of certain hardware components and the delivery of products by our

Tax laws, regulations, and administrative practices in various jurisdictions are evolving and may be subject to significant changes due to economic, political and other conditions. Governments, including the United States, are increasingly focused on ways to increase tax revenues, particularly from multinational corporations, which have led to changes in tax laws, an increase in audit activity and harsher positions taken by tax authorities. We are currently subject to tax audits in various jurisdictions and these jurisdictions have assessed, or may assess, additional tax liabilities against us.

Our operations are subject to income and transaction taxes in the United States and in multiple foreign jurisdictions, with a significant amount of our foreign earnings generated by our subsidiaries organized in Ireland and Hungary. Any significant change in our future effective tax rates could adversely impact our results of operations, cash flows and financial position. Our future effective tax rates could be adversely affected by factors that include, but are not limited to, changes in tax laws or the interpretation of such tax laws in jurisdictions in which we have business activity, earnings being lower than anticipated in jurisdictions with low statutory tax rates, changes in tax benefits from stock-based compensation, changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, changes in our recognition or measurement of a tax position taken in a prior period, increases to interest or penalty expenses, new accounting standards or interpretations of such standards, or results of examinations by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), state, and foreign tax or other governmental authorities. For example, our fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2023 effective tax rates and cash tax payments increased significantly as compared to fiscal 2021, which primarily resulted from a requirement that we capitalize and amortize R&D costs beginning from fiscal 2022, rather than expense these costs as incurred for U.S. corporate income tax purposes.

The IRS and other tax authorities regularly examine our income tax returns and other non-income tax returns, such as payroll, sales, use, value-added, net worth or franchise, property, goods and services, consumption, import, stamp and excise taxes, in both the United States and foreign jurisdictions. The calculation of our provision for income taxes and our accruals for other taxes requires us to use significant judgment and involves dealing with uncertainties in the application of complex tax laws and regulations. In determining the adequacy of our provision for income taxes, we regularly assess the potential settlement outcomes resulting from income tax examinations. However, the final outcome of tax examinations cannot be estimated with certainty and could be materially different from the amount that is reflected in our historical income tax provisions and accruals for other taxes. Should the IRS or other tax authorities assess additional taxes, penalties or interest as a result of a current or future examination, we may be required to record charges to operations in future periods that could have a material impact on our results of operations, financial position and cash flows in the applicable period or periods.

In August 2022, the United States enacted the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which included a new minimum tax on certain large corporations, an excise tax on stock buybacks and significant funding for IRS enforcement efforts. In October 2021, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”) announced an agreement among more than 130 countries to adopt new rules including Pillar Two Model Rules which call for the taxation of large multinational corporations, such as Cadence, at a minimum rate of 15%. Subsequently multiple sets of administrative guidance have been issued. Many non-U.S. tax jurisdictions have either recently enacted legislation to adopt certain components of the Pillar Two Model Rules beginning in 2024 (including the European Union Member States) with the adoption of additional components in later years or announced their plans to enact legislation in future years. Furthermore, many countries have enacted or proposed new laws to tax digital transactions. These and future developments in tax laws and regulations, and related compliance, could have a material adverse effect on our operating results, financial position and cash flows.

Forecasts of our annual effective tax rate do not include the anticipation of future tax law changes and are complex and subject to uncertainty because our income tax position for each year combines the effects of estimating the amount and composition of our annual income or loss in jurisdictions with varying income tax rates, as well as benefits from available deferred tax assets, the impact of various accounting rules, our interpretations of changes in tax laws and results of tax audits. In addition, we account for certain tax benefits from stock-based compensation in the period the stock compensation vests or is settled, which may cause increased variability in our quarterly effective tax rates. If there were a material difference between forecasted and actual tax rates, it could have a material impact on our results of operations.

From time to time, we or our products or technologies are involved in or subject to disputes and legal proceedings that arise in the ordinary course of business. These include disputes and legal proceedings related to IP, indemnification, mergers and acquisitions, licensing, contracts, customers, products, distribution and other commercial arrangements and employee relations matters. Governments and regulatory agencies in the jurisdictions in which we operate also open or initiate inquiries,

Our customers use our products and services in designing and developing products that involve a high degree of technological complexity, each of which has its own specifications. Because of the complexity of the systems and products with which we work, some of our products and designs can be adequately tested only when put to full use in the marketplace. As a result, from time to time, our customers or their end users discover errors or defects in our software or the systems we design, or the products or systems incorporating our design and IP may not operate as expected. Errors or defects could result in reputational damage, failure to attract new or retain existing customers or market share and acceptance, diversion of development resources to resolve the problem, loss of or delay in revenue or payments and increased service costs and liability.

United States generally accepted accounting principles (“U.S. GAAP”) are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”), the SEC and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. We are also subject to evolving rules and regulations of the countries in which we do business. Changes to accounting standards or interpretations thereof may result in different accounting principles under U.S. GAAP that could have a significant effect on our reported financial results.

When companies in our industry lose employees to competitors, they frequently claim that these competitors have engaged in unfair hiring practices or that the employment of these persons would involve the disclosure or use of trade secrets. These claims could prevent us from hiring employees or cause us to incur liability for damages. We could also incur substantial costs in defending ourselves or our employees against these claims, regardless of their merits. Defending ourselves from these claims could also divert the attention of our management away from our operations.

We are subject to changing rules and regulations promulgated by a number of governmental and self-regulatory organizations, including the SEC, Nasdaq and the FASB, as well as evolving investor, customer, employee and other stakeholder expectations around corporate governance, executive compensation and environmental and social practices and disclosures, such as climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, water usage, waste management, diversity, equity and inclusion and supply chain management. These rules, regulations and expectations continue to evolve in scope and complexity, and many new requirements have been created in response to laws enacted by U.S. and foreign governments, making compliance more difficult and uncertain. The increase in costs to comply with such evolving expectations, rules and regulations, as well as any risk of noncompliance, could adversely impact us. We expect that rapidly changing laws, regulations, policies, interpretations and expectations related to corporate governance, environmental and social matters, as well as increased enforcement actions by various governmental and regulatory agencies, will continue to increase the cost of our compliance and internal risk management programs, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Moreover, some stakeholders may disagree with our corporate governance, environmental and social targets and practices and the focus of stakeholders may change and evolve over time. Stakeholders may have different views on where corporate governance, environmental and social focus should be placed. Any disagreement with our targets or strategies could adversely affect our business, reputation, results of operations and financial condition.

We have established corporate governance and environmental and social targets and strategies, including relating to greenhouse gas emissions reduction. If our ESG practices, reporting or disclosure controls do not meet evolving investor, customer, employee or other stakeholder expectations and regulatory standards, or if we are unable to make progress on or achieve our goals and objectives in this area, including our net zero target, then our reputation, our ability to attract or retain employees, and our attractiveness as an investment or business partner could be negatively impacted, which could adversely affect our operating results. Our disclosures and public positions or commitments on these matters may change from time to time, as may corresponding internal controls and external reporting standards, which can expose us to reputational, financial, legal, and other risks, including as a result of a failure or perceived failure to achieve publicly disclosed aspirations, targets, or goals, such as our greenhouse gas emissions reduction target, or a failure to report accurately. Statements about our ESG initiatives and goals, and progress against those goals, may be based on standards for measuring progress that are still

Our stock price is subject to changes in recommendations or earnings estimates by financial analysts, changes in investors’ or analysts’ valuation measures for our stock, our credit ratings and other factors beyond our control such as the COVID-19 pandemic, inflationary pressures, other macroeconomic factors and associated economic downturn. Furthermore, speculation in the press or investment community about our strategic position, financial condition, results of operations, business or security of our products, can cause changes in our stock price. In addition to these factors and industry and general economic and political conditions, our stock price may be adversely impacted by announcements related to financial results or forecasts that fail to meet or are inconsistent with earlier projections or the expectations of our securities analysts or investors, announcements of new products or acquisitions of new technologies by us, our competitors or our customers, or announcements of acquisitions, major transactions, litigation developments or management changes. A significant drop in our stock price could expose us to the risk of securities class action lawsuits, stockholder derivative lawsuits or other actions by stockholders, which may result in substantial costs and divert management’s attention and resources, which may adversely affect our business.

Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws and certain provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law (the “DGCL”) that apply to us could make it difficult for anyone to acquire control of our company. Our certificate of incorporation allows our Board of Directors to designate and issue, at any time and without stockholder approval, up to 400,000 shares of preferred stock in one or more series. All 400,000 shares of preferred stock are currently designated as Series A Preferred, but because no such shares are outstanding or reserved for issuance, our Board of Directors may reduce the number of shares of preferred stock designated as Series A Preferred to zero. Subject to the DGCL, our Board of Directors may, as to any shares of preferred stock the terms of which have not then been designated, fix the rights, preferences, privileges and restrictions on these shares, fix the number of shares and designation of any series, and increase or decrease the number of shares of any series if not below the number of outstanding shares plus the number of shares reserved for issuance. Our Board of Directors has the power to issue shares of Series A Preferred with dividend, voting and liquidation rights superior to our common stock at a rate of 1,000-to-1 without further vote or action by the common stockholders.

In addition, Section 203 of the DGCL generally prohibits a Delaware corporation from engaging in any business combination with a person owning 15% or more of its voting stock, or who is affiliated with the corporation and owned 15% or more of its voting stock at any time within three years prior to the proposed business combination, for a period of three years from the date the person became a 15% owner, unless specified conditions are met.

All or any one of these factors could limit the price that certain investors would be willing to pay for shares of our common stock and could allow our Board of Directors to resist, delay or prevent an acquisition of our company, even if a proposed transaction were favored by a majority of our independent stockholders.

We have significant outstanding indebtedness, as well as the ability to access additional borrowings under our revolving credit facility. Subject to the limits contained in the credit agreement governing our revolving credit facility, the indenture that governs the 4.375% Senior Notes due October 15, 2024 (the “2024 Notes”), the loan agreement governing our senior non-amortizing term loan facility due September 7, 2025 (the “2025 Term Loan”) and our other debt instruments, we may be able to incur substantial additional debt from time to time to finance working capital, capital expenditures, investments or acquisitions, share repurchases or for other purposes. If we do so, the risks related to our level of debt could intensify. As of December 31, 2023, both our 2024 Notes and 2025 Term Loan will mature in the next 22 months, which could require us to consume a significant portion of our liquidity or raise additional financing in adverse capital markets conditions.

Specifically, our level of debt could have important consequences, including the following:

In addition, if we incur any additional indebtedness that ranks equally with the 2024 Notes, then subject to any collateral arrangements we may enter into, the holders of that debt will be entitled to share ratably in any proceeds distributed in connection with any insolvency, liquidation, reorganization, dissolution or other winding up of our company.

We repurchase shares of our common stock from time to time in accordance with authorizations from our Board of Directors. The primary objective of our share repurchase activities is to prevent share dilution associated with our stock compensation plans. The actual timing and amount of our share repurchases are subject to business and market conditions, corporate and regulatory requirements, stock price, acquisition opportunities and other factors and may fluctuate based on such factors. Our repurchase authorization does not obligate us to acquire a minimum amount of shares, does not have an expiration date and may be modified, suspended or terminated without prior notice. We cannot guarantee that the authorization will be fully expended or that our share repurchases will enhance long-term stockholder value. Further, our share repurchase activities could affect our stock price, increase stock price volatility, reduce our cash reserves and may be suspended or terminated at any time, which may result in a decrease in our stock price.

Under the terms of our 2024 Notes, we may be required to repurchase for cash such notes prior to their maturity in connection with the occurrence of certain significant corporate events. Specifically, we are required to offer to repurchase such notes upon a “change of control triggering event” (as defined in the indenture related to such notes), such as a change of control accompanied by certain downgrades in the credit ratings of such notes. The repayment obligations under such notes may have the effect of discouraging, delaying or preventing a takeover of our company. If we were required to pay the 2024 Notes prior to their scheduled maturity, it could have a significant negative impact on our cash and liquidity and could impact our ability to invest financial resources in other strategic initiatives.

The agreements governing our revolving credit facility, 2025 Term Loan and 2024 Notes contain a number of restrictive covenants that impose significant operating and financial restrictions on us and may limit our ability to engage in acts that may be in our long-term best interest, including restrictions on our ability to incur liens or additional indebtedness and guarantee indebtedness, enter into transactions with affiliates, alter the businesses we conduct, consolidate, merge or sell all or substantially all of our assets and to enter into sale and leaseback transactions. In addition, the restrictive covenants in the agreements governing our revolving credit facility and 2025 Term Loan require us to maintain specified financial ratios. Our ability to meet those financial ratios can be affected by events beyond our control, and we may be unable to meet them.

A breach of the covenants or restrictions under the agreements governing our revolving credit facility, 2025 Term Loan and 2024 Notes could result in an event of default under the applicable indebtedness. Such a default may allow the creditors to accelerate the related debt and may result in the acceleration of any other debt to which a cross-acceleration or cross-default provision applies. In addition, an event of default under the credit agreement governing our revolving credit facility would permit the lenders under our revolving credit facility to terminate all commitments to extend further credit. In the event our lenders or note holders accelerate the repayment of our borrowings, we may not have sufficient assets to repay that indebtedness.

As a result of these restrictions, we may be limited in how we conduct our business, unable to raise additional debt or equity financing to operate during general economic or business downturns or unable to compete effectively, take advantage of new business opportunities or otherwise grow in accordance with our strategy. In addition, our financial results, our substantial indebtedness and our credit ratings could adversely affect the availability and terms of our financing.

Our ability to make scheduled payments on or refinance our debt obligations depends on our financial condition and operating performance, which are subject to prevailing economic and competitive conditions and certain financial, business, legislative, regulatory and other factors beyond our control. We may be unable to maintain a level of cash flows from operating activities sufficient to permit us to pay the principal, premium, if any, and interest on our indebtedness. Our inability to generate sufficient cash flows to satisfy our debt obligations, or to refinance our indebtedness on commercially reasonable terms or at all, would materially and adversely affect our financial position and results of operations.

If our cash flows and capital resources are insufficient to satisfy our debt obligations, we could face substantial liquidity problems and be forced to reduce or delay investments and capital expenditures or dispose of material assets or operations, seek additional debt or equity capital or restructure or refinance our indebtedness. We may not be able to effect any such alternative measures on commercially reasonable terms or at all and, even if successful, those alternative actions may not allow us to meet our debt obligations. Our debt agreements restrict our ability to dispose of assets and use the proceeds from dispositions and may also restrict our ability to raise capital to repay other indebtedness when due. We may not be able to consummate dispositions or obtain proceeds in an amount sufficient to meet any debt obligations then due.

If we cannot make scheduled payments on our debt, we will be in default and holders of our debt could declare all outstanding principal and interest to be due and payable, the lenders could terminate their commitments to loan money, and we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation. In addition, a material default on our indebtedness could suspend our eligibility to register securities using short form, automatically effective registration statements, potentially hindering our ability to raise capital through the issuance of our securities and increasing our costs.

Borrowings under our revolving credit facility and 2025 Term Loan are at variable rates of interest and expose us to interest rate risk. When interest rates increase, our debt service obligations increase even though the amount borrowed remains the same, and our net income and cash flows, including cash available for servicing our indebtedness, could correspondingly decrease. We may enter into interest rate swaps that involve the exchange of floating for fixed rate interest payments in order to reduce interest rate volatility. However, we may not maintain interest rate swaps with respect to all of our variable rate indebtedness, and any swaps we enter into may not fully mitigate our interest rate risk.

Our revolving credit facility utilizes, at our option, either (1) Term Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”), plus a margin between 0.750% and 1.250% per annum, plus a SOFR adjustment of 0.10% or (2) the base rate plus a margin between 0.000% and 0.250% per annum, to calculate the amount of accrued interest on any borrowings. The 2025 Term Loan utilizes, at our option, either (1) Term SOFR, plus a margin between 0.625% and 1.125% per annum, plus a SOFR adjustment of 0.10% or (2) base rate plus a margin between 0.000% and 0.125% per annum, to calculate the amount of accrued interest on borrowings. In each case, the applicable margin within the specified ranges is determined by reference to the credit rating of our unsecured debt. Accordingly, a credit rating downgrade would increase the applicable interest rates. Assuming all loans were fully drawn and we were to fully exercise our right to increase borrowing capacity under our revolving credit facility and we made no prepayments on our 2025 Term Loan, each quarter point change in interest rates would result in a $3.4 million change in annual interest expense.

We may in the future seek additional financing for a variety of reasons, and our future borrowing costs, terms and access to capital could be affected by factors including the condition of the debt and equity markets, the condition of the economy generally, prevailing interest rates, our level of indebtedness, our credit rating and our business and financial condition. In addition, the 2024 Notes currently have an investment grade credit rating, which could be lowered or withdrawn entirely by a credit rating agency based on adverse changes to circumstances relating to the basis of the credit rating. Consequently, real or anticipated changes in our credit ratings will generally affect the market value of the 2024 Notes. Any future lowering of the credit ratings of the 2024 Notes likely would make it more difficult or more expensive for us to obtain additional debt financing.

We have developed and implemented a cybersecurity risk management program intended to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of our critical systems and information, including our customers’, vendors’, partners’ and employees’ data, including personal information.

Our cybersecurity risk management program is guided by frameworks and standards promulgated by the EU, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Cloud Security Alliance (“CSA”) and International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (“ISO/IEC”). While we seek to maintain ISO/IEC 27001:2013, ISO/IEC 27017 and the SOC 2 Type 1 certifications, this does not imply that we specifically or comprehensively comply with technical specification or requirements, only that we use all the above-mentioned standards and regulations as a guide to help us identify, assess and manage cybersecurity risks relevant to our business.

Our cybersecurity risk management program is integrated into our overall risk oversight strategy and utilizes common reporting channels and governance processes that apply across other risk areas. We have a dedicated Chief Information Security Officer (“CISO”), who leads our Information Security team responsible for managing our cybersecurity processes, strategy and controls. Certain members of our Information Security team hold cybersecurity certifications, including the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (“CISSP”) and the Certified Information Systems Auditor (“CISA”) designations.

Our cybersecurity risk management program includes:

We have not identified risks from known cybersecurity threats, including as a result of any prior cybersecurity incidents, that have materially affected or are reasonably likely to materially affect us, including our business strategy, results of operations, or financial condition.

Our Board of Directors is responsible for overseeing our enterprise risk management activities in general, and our Board committees assist with certain aspects of risk oversight. With respect to cybersecurity risk, our Board of Directors shares certain of the oversight responsibility and processes with the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors (“Audit Committee”).

The Audit Committee, comprised entirely of independent directors, reviews and discusses with management our guidelines, policies and practices regarding risk assessment and risk management as they relate to our financial condition, and oversees our financial risk exposures, including planning regarding business continuity and cybersecurity. In addition, the Audit Committee oversees our annual enterprise business risk assessment, which includes the review of cybersecurity risks we face and our associated risk mitigation measures, and receives semi-annual reports from management on cybersecurity matters, including areas such as threat intelligence, major cybersecurity risk areas, regulations and cybersecurity incidents. In addition, management updates the Audit Committee, as necessary, regarding significant cybersecurity incidents, as well as any incidents with lesser impact potential.

The Audit Committee reports to the Board of Directors regarding its activities related to cybersecurity. In addition, the Board of Directors also directly receives reports from management on our cybersecurity risk profile and on the performance of our data privacy and cybersecurity risk management program, semi-annually in alternating quarters with the Audit Committee.

Our management team, including our Chief Information Officer (“CIO”), CISO and the General Counsel, is responsible for assessing and managing material risks from cybersecurity threats, including supervision of our internal security incident response team and our Disclosure Committee comprised of certain of our employees (including any applicable subcommittees thereof). Our management team has relevant expertise in the following:(i) understanding of cybersecurity risks in enterprise operations, (ii) experience in overseeing risk management and understanding risks faced by enterprise operations and (iii) significant operating experience allowing them to provide insight into developing, implementing and assessing our operating plan. In addition, our CISO has over 25 years of broad cybersecurity and information technology risk management experience, is a Certified Information Security Manager (“CISM”) and holds a Master's Degree in computer science and information systems.

Our management team supervises efforts to prevent, detect, mitigate, and remediate cybersecurity risks and incidents, and is responsible for oversight and management of our cybersecurity risk management program. Our management team receives briefings from our internal Information Security team and the Disclosure Committee whenever applicable. Such briefings include information regarding threat intelligence and other information obtained from governmental, public or private sources, including external consultants engaged by us, and alerts and reports produced by security tools deployed in our information technology environment. Our management team also provides quarterly cybersecurity risk management program updates, to the Board of Directors or to the Audit Committee, in alternating quarters.

Item 2. Properties

We lease additional facilities in the United States and various other countries. We may sublease certain of these facilities where space is not fully utilized.

We believe that these facilities are adequate for our current needs and that suitable additional or substitute space will be available as needed to accommodate any expansion of our operations.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings

For information regarding pending legal proceedings, related matters and associated risks, see Note 18 in the notes to consolidated financial statements under Item 15 of Part IV and the “Risk Factors” section under Item 1A of Part I of this Annual Report.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Our common stock is traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol CDNS. As of January 31, 2024, we had 344 registered stockholders. Because many shares of our common stock are held by brokers and other institutions on behalf of stockholders, we are unable to estimate the total number of stockholders that are represented by these record holders.

As of December 31, 2023, approximately $1.4 billion of the share repurchase authorization remained available to repurchase shares of our common stock. The share repurchase authorization does not obligate us to acquire a minimum amount of shares, does not have an expiration date and may be modified, suspended or terminated without prior notice.

Cadence is a leading pioneer in electronic system design software and IP, building upon more than 35 years of computational software expertise. Since our inception, we have been at the forefront of technology innovation, solving highly complex challenges in the semiconductor and electronic systems industries. We are a global company that provides computational software, special-purpose computational hardware, IP and services to multiple vertical sectors including automotive, AI, aerospace and defense, high-performance and mobile computing, hyperscalers, wireless communications, IIoT and medical equipment.

Our strategy allows us to deliver essential computational software, hardware and IP that our customers use to turn their design concepts into reality. Our customers include many of the world's most innovative companies that design and build highly sophisticated semiconductor and electronic systems found in products used in everyday life. Our Intelligent System Design strategy allows us to quickly adapt to our customers' dynamic design requirements. Our products and services enable our customers to develop complex and innovative semiconductor and electronic systems, so demand for our technology and expertise is driven by increasing complexity and our customers’ need to invest in new designs and products that are highly differentiated. Historically, the industry that provided the tools used by IC engineers was referred to as Electronic Design Automation (“EDA”). Today, our offerings include and extend beyond EDA.

We group our products into categories related to major design activities:

For additional information about our products, see the discussion in Item 1, “Business,” under the heading “Products and Product Categories.”

Consistent with our Intelligent System Design strategy, we completed several acquisitions since the beginning of fiscal 2023 that we believe enhance our talent, our technology portfolio and our ability to pursue attractive opportunities in the markets we serve. During fiscal 2023, these acquisitions increased expenses, including amortization of acquired intangible assets, more than revenue.

Management uses certain performance indicators to manage our business, including revenue, certain elements of operating expenses and cash flow from operations, and we describe these items further below under the headings “Results of Operations” and “Liquidity and Capital Resources.”

Historically, our fiscal years were 52- or 53-week periods ending on the Saturday closest to December 31. During fiscal 2022, our Board of Directors approved a change in our fiscal year end from the Saturday closest to December 31 of each year to December 31 of each year. The fiscal year change became effective beginning with our fiscal year 2023, which began on January 1, 2023. Fiscal year 2022, which is included in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” for comparative purposes, represents a 52-week period.

Our first three fiscal quarters end on March 31, June 30, and September 30. No transition report was required in connection with this change.

Because we operate globally, our business is subject to the effects of expanded trade control laws and regulations, geopolitical conflict in and around Ukraine, the Middle East, and other areas of the world, volatility in foreign currency exchange rates relative to the U.S. dollar and the rise in interest rates.

We have been impacted by the continued expansion of trade control laws and regulations, including certain export control restrictions concerning advanced node IC production in China, the inclusion of additional Chinese technology companies on the Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) “Entity List” and regulations governing the sale of certain technologies. Based on our current assessments, we expect the impact of these expanded trade control laws and regulations on our business to be limited.

We also continuously monitor geopolitical conflicts around the world and their effects on our business. During the first half of fiscal 2022, due to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the corresponding sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries, we terminated our operations in Russia. The termination of our operations in Russia has not materially limited our ability to develop or support our products and has not had a material impact on our results of operations, financial condition, liquidity or cash flows. We do not have operations or employees in Ukraine.

More recently, the conflict in the Middle East has had an impact on our employees and our customers in that region of the world. Our assessment of the potential impact that this conflict could have on our business and our operations is ongoing.

While our business model provides some resilience against these factors, we will continue to monitor the direct and indirect impacts of these or similar circumstances on our business and financial results. For additional information on the potential impact of macroeconomic conditions on our business, see Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors.”

We primarily generate revenue from licensing our software and IP, selling or leasing our emulation and prototyping hardware technology, providing maintenance for our software, hardware and IP, providing engineering and cloud services and earning royalties generated from the use of our IP. The timing of our revenue is significantly affected by the mix of software, hardware and IP products generating revenue in any given period, whether the revenue is recognized over time, or recognized at a point in time upon completion of delivery.

Recurring revenue includes revenue recognized over time from our software arrangements, services, royalties, maintenance on IP licenses and hardware, and operating leases of hardware. Recurring revenue also includes revenue recognized at varying points in time over the term of other arrangements with non-cancelable commitments, whereby the customer commits to a fixed dollar amount over a specified period of time that can be used to purchase from a list of products or services.

The remainder of our revenue is recognized at a point in time and is characterized as up-front revenue. Up-front revenue is primarily generated by our sales of emulation and prototyping hardware and individual IP licenses. The percentage of our recurring and up-front revenue and fluctuations in revenue within our geographies are impacted by delivery of hardware and IP products to our customers in any single fiscal period. 

The following table shows the percentage of our revenue that is classified as recurring or up-front for fiscal 2023 and 2022: 

Up-front revenue as a percentage of total revenue increased during fiscal 2023, as compared to fiscal 2022, primarily due to growth in our emulation and prototyping hardware offerings. This growth was driven by increased production capacity during fiscal 2023 to address demand for our emulation and prototyping hardware offerings.

While the percentage of revenue characterized as recurring compared to revenue characterized as up-front may vary between fiscal quarters, the overall mix of revenue was relatively consistent over the course of twelve consecutive months during both fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2022. The following table shows the percentage of recurring revenue for the twelve-month periods ended concurrently with our five most recent fiscal quarters:

The following table shows our revenue for fiscal 2023 and 2022 and the change in revenue between years:

Product and maintenance revenue increased during fiscal 2023, as compared to fiscal 2022, primarily due to increased demand across our five product categories. This growth was driven by our customers investing in new, complex designs for their products that included the design of electronic systems for consumer, hyperscale computing, mobile, 5G communications, automotive, aerospace and defense, industrial and healthcare.

Services revenue increased during fiscal 2023, as compared to fiscal 2022, primarily due to increased revenue from our Cadence-managed cloud-based offerings, including our computational molecular modeling and simulation solution associated with our acquisition of OpenEye. Services revenue may fluctuate from period to period based on the timing of fulfillment of our services and IP performance obligations.

No one customer accounted for 10% or more of total revenue during fiscal 2023 or 2022.

The following table shows the percentage of product and related maintenance revenue contributed by each of our five product categories and services during fiscal 2023 and 2022:

Revenue by product category fluctuates from period to period based on demand for our products and services, our available resources and our ability to deliver and support them. Certain of our licensing arrangements allow customers the ability to remix among software products. Additionally, we have arrangements with customers that include a combination of our products, with the actual product selection and number of licensed users to be determined at a later date. For these arrangements, we estimate the allocation of the revenue to product categories based upon the expected usage of our products. The actual usage of our products by these customers may differ and, if that proves to be the case, the revenue allocation in the table above would differ.

Revenue in each of the six geographies presented in the table above increased during fiscal 2023, as compared to fiscal 2022, primarily due to increased revenue from our software offerings, resulting from our customers’ continued investment in new, complex designs for their products. Also, during fiscal 2023, as compared to fiscal 2022, revenue growth from our emulation and prototyping hardware offerings contributed to the growth experienced in each geography, except the United States. This growth was driven by increased production capacity during fiscal 2023 to address continued demand from our customers.

Most of our revenue is transacted in the U.S. dollar. However, certain revenue transactions are denominated in foreign currencies. For an additional description of how changes in foreign exchange rates affect our consolidated financial statements, see the discussion under Item 7A, “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk – Foreign Currency Risk.”

Cost of product and maintenance includes costs associated with the sale and lease of our emulation and prototyping hardware and licensing of our software and IP products, certain employee salary and benefits and other employee-related costs, cost of our customer support services, amortization of technology-related and maintenance-related acquired intangibles, costs of technical documentation and royalties payable to third-party vendors. Cost of product and maintenance depends primarily on our hardware product sales in any given period, but is also affected by employee salary and benefits and other employee-related costs, reserves for inventory, and the timing and extent to which we acquire intangible assets, license third-party technology or IP, and sell our products that include such acquired or licensed assets, technology or IP.

Costs associated with our emulation and prototyping hardware products include components, assembly, testing, applicable reserves and overhead. These costs make our cost of emulation and prototyping hardware products higher, as a percentage of revenue, than our cost of software and IP products. The increase in emulation and prototyping hardware costs during fiscal 2023, as compared to fiscal 2022, was primarily due to increased revenue from emulation and prototyping hardware products.

Cost of services primarily includes employee salary, benefits and other employee-related costs to perform work on revenue-generating projects and costs to maintain the infrastructure necessary to manage a services organization. Cost of services may fluctuate from period to period based on our utilization of design services engineers on revenue-generating projects rather than internal development projects.

Our operating expenses include marketing and sales, research and development, and general and administrative expenses. Factors that tend to cause our operating expenses to fluctuate include changes in the number of employees due to hiring and acquisitions, our annual mid-year promotion and pay raise cycle, stock-based compensation, foreign exchange rate movements, acquisition-related costs, volatility in variable compensation programs that are driven by operating results, and charitable donations.

Many of our operating expenses are transacted in various foreign currencies. We recognize lower expenses in periods when the U.S. dollar strengthens in value against other currencies, and we recognize higher expenses when the U.S. dollar weakens against other currencies. For an additional description of how changes in foreign exchange rates affect our consolidated financial statements, see the discussion in Item 7A, “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk – Foreign Currency Risk.”

Our operating expenses for fiscal 2023 and 2022 were as follows:

The changes in marketing and sales expense were due to the following:

Salary, benefits and other employee-related costs and stock-based compensation included in marketing and sales expense increased during fiscal 2023, as compared to fiscal 2022, primarily due to our continued investment in attracting and retaining talent dedicated to technical sales support, including additional headcount from the acquisitions completed in both fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2023. Facilities and other infrastructure costs included in marketing and sales expense increased during fiscal 2023, as compared to fiscal 2022, primarily due to our growing workforce. Costs related to marketing programs and events, travel and sales meetings increased during fiscal 2023, as compared to fiscal 2022, primarily due to an increased number of in-person meetings and events. We expect to continue attracting and retaining talent dedicated to technical sales support through hiring and acquisitions.

Salary, benefits and other employee-related costs and stock-based compensation included in research and development expense increased during fiscal 2023, as compared to fiscal 2022, primarily due to our continued investment in attracting and retaining talent for research and development activities, including additional headcount from the acquisitions completed in both fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2023. Facilities and other infrastructure costs increased during fiscal 2023, as compared to fiscal 2022, primarily due to an increase in costs associated with our acquisitions and our growing work force. We expect to continue attracting and retaining talent dedicated to research and development activities through hiring and acquisitions.

The changes in general and administrative expense were due to the following:

Salary, benefits and other employee-related costs and stock-based compensation included in general and administrative expense increased during fiscal 2023, as compared to fiscal 2022, primarily due to additional headcount. Also, during fiscal 2023, as compared to fiscal 2022, we experienced an increase in foreign service tax, primarily because we did not benefit from any foreign service tax refunds as we did during fiscal 2022.

During fiscal 2023, as compared to fiscal 2022, contributions to non-profit organizations decreased, primarily due to the timing of our periodic contributions to support charitable initiatives, including the Cadence Giving Foundation. Also, during fiscal 2023, as compared to fiscal 2022, we experienced a decrease in legal fees and related costs primarily due to non-recurring legal services and legal matters that were active during fiscal 2022 and are now resolved.

Amortization of acquired intangibles consists primarily of amortization of customer relationships, acquired backlog, trade names, trademarks and patents. Amortization in any given period depends primarily on the timing and extent to which we acquire intangible assets.

Amortization of acquired intangibles decreased during fiscal 2023, as compared to fiscal 2022, primarily due to certain intangible assets becoming fully amortized, partially offset by amortization from intangible assets acquired with our fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2022 acquisitions.

We have initiated restructuring plans in recent years, most recently in fiscal 2023, to better align our resources with our business strategy. Because the restructuring charges and related benefits are derived from management’s estimates made during the formulation of the restructuring plans, based on then-currently available information, our restructuring plans may not achieve the benefits anticipated on the timetable or at the level contemplated. Additional actions, including further restructuring of our operations, may be required in the future. For additional information about our restructuring plans, see Note 11 in the notes to consolidated financial statements.

Operating margin represents income from operations as a percentage of total revenue. Our operating margin for fiscal 2023 and 2022 was as follows:

Operating margin increased during fiscal 2023, as compared to fiscal 2022, primarily because revenue growth in each of our five product categories exceeded growth in operating expenses.

Interest expense for fiscal 2023 and 2022 was comprised of the following:

Interest expense increased during fiscal 2023, as compared to fiscal 2022, primarily due to the fact that borrowings under our 2025 Term Loan were outstanding for the full year during fiscal 2023, and only a partial year during fiscal 2022. For an additional description of our debt arrangements, including our 2025 Term Loan, see Note 5 in the notes to consolidated financial statements.

Other income (expense), net consists primarily of interest earned on cash, cash equivalents and investments in debt securities, realized and unrealized gains and losses from our investments in equity securities of other companies and foreign exchange gains and losses. Other income (expense), net increased during fiscal 2023, as compared to fiscal 2022, primarily due to unrealized gains from our investments in equity securities of publicly held companies and increased interest earned from deposits. For additional information about other income (expense), net, see Note 12 in the notes to consolidated financial statements.

The United States enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in December 2017, which requires companies to capitalize all of their R&D costs, including software development costs, incurred in tax years beginning after December 31, 2021. Beginning in fiscal 2022, we began capitalizing and amortizing R&D costs over five years for domestic research and fifteen years for international research rather than expensing these costs as incurred. As a result, our fiscal 2023 and 2022 effective tax rates and our cash tax payments increased significantly as compared to fiscal 2021. We also recognized increases to our deferred tax assets as we begin to capitalize domestic research costs.

Our provision for income taxes for fiscal 2023 was primarily attributable to federal, state and foreign income taxes on our fiscal 2023 income, partially offset by the tax benefit of $54.0 million related to stock-based compensation that vested or was exercised during the period. We also recognized a tax benefit of $24.8 million due to the recognition of previously unrecognized federal tax benefits from the expiration of the applicable statute of limitations and a tax benefit of $14.0 million primarily related to a change in R&D expenses that were capitalized in fiscal 2022.

Our provision for income taxes for fiscal 2022 was primarily attributable to federal, state and foreign income taxes on our fiscal 2022 income, partially offset by the tax benefit of $42.1 million related to stock-based compensation that vested or was exercised during the period. We also recognized a tax benefit of $68.7 million related to the release of the valuation allowance on our California R&D tax credits because we expect to utilize these tax credits based on strong current earnings and future taxable income projections.

In 2021, the OECD announced Pillar Two Model Rules which call for the taxation of large multinational corporations, such as Cadence, at a minimum rate of 15%. Many non-U.S. tax jurisdictions have either recently enacted legislation to adopt certain components of the Pillar Two Model Rules beginning in 2024 (including the European Union Member States such as Ireland and Hungary) with the adoption of additional components in later years or announced their plans to enact legislation in future years. We are continuing to evaluate the impacts of enacted legislation and pending legislation to enact Pillar Two Model Rules in the non-U.S. tax jurisdictions in which we operate.

Our future effective tax rates may also be materially impacted by tax amounts associated with our foreign earnings at rates different from the United States federal statutory rate, research credits, the tax impact of stock-based compensation, accounting for uncertain tax positions, business combinations, closure of statutes of limitations or settlement of tax audits and changes in tax law. A significant amount of our foreign earnings is generated by our subsidiaries organized in Ireland and Hungary. Our future effective tax rates may be adversely affected if our earnings were to be lower in countries where we have lower statutory tax rates. We currently expect that our fiscal 2024 effective tax rate will be approximately 23.0%. We expect that our quarterly effective tax rates will vary from our fiscal 2024 effective tax rate as a result of recognizing the income tax effects of stock-based awards in the quarterly periods that the awards vest or are settled and other items that we cannot anticipate. For additional discussion about how our effective tax rate could be affected by various risks, see Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors.” For further discussion regarding our income taxes, see Note 8 in the notes to consolidated financial statements.

As of December 31, 2023, our principal sources of liquidity consisted of $1,008.2 million of cash and cash equivalents as compared to $882.3 million as of December 31, 2022.

Our primary sources of cash and cash equivalents during fiscal 2023 were cash generated from operations, proceeds from the issuance of common stock resulting from stock purchases under our employee stock purchase plan and stock options exercised during the year, proceeds from the sale of investments, and proceeds from our revolving credit facility.

Our primary uses of cash and cash equivalents during fiscal 2023 were payments related to employee salaries and benefits, operating expenses, repurchases of our common stock, purchases of inventory, payments for income taxes, cash paid for acquired businesses, payments on our revolving credit facility, purchases of investments, payment of employee taxes on vesting of restricted stock and purchases of property, plant and equipment.

Approximately 55% of our cash and cash equivalents was held by our foreign subsidiaries as of December 31, 2023. Our cash and cash equivalents held by our foreign subsidiaries may vary from period to period due to the timing of collections and repatriation of foreign earnings. We expect that current cash and cash equivalent balances and cash flows that are generated from operations and financing activities will be sufficient to meet the needs of our domestic and international operating activities and other capital and liquidity requirements, including acquisitions, investments and share repurchases, for at least the next 12 months and thereafter for the foreseeable future.

Net working capital is comprised of current assets less current liabilities, as shown on our consolidated balance sheets. The increase in our net working capital as of December 31, 2023, as compared to December 31, 2022, is primarily due to the timing of cash receipts from customers and disbursements made for operating and financing activities, offset by our 2024 Notes being classified as current liabilities as of December 31, 2023.

Cash flows provided by operating activities include net income, adjusted for certain non-cash items, as well as changes in the balances of certain assets and liabilities. Our cash flows from operating activities are significantly influenced by business levels and the payment terms set forth in our customer agreements. The increase in cash flows from operating activities during fiscal 2023, as compared to fiscal 2022, was primarily due to improved results from operations, the timing of cash receipts from customers and the timing of cash disbursements.

Cash used for financing activities increased during fiscal 2023, as compared to fiscal 2022, primarily due to a decrease in proceeds from debt, partially offset by a decrease in payments for repurchases of our common stock.

In June 2021, we entered into a five-year senior unsecured revolving credit facility with a group of lenders led by Bank of America, N.A., as administrative agent, as amended in September 2022 (the “2021 Credit Facility”). The 2021 Credit Facility provides for borrowings up to $700.0 million, with the right to request increased capacity up to an additional $350.0 million upon receipt of lender commitments, for total maximum borrowings of $1.05 billion. The 2021 Credit Facility expires on June 30, 2026. Any outstanding loans drawn under the 2021 Credit Facility are due at maturity on June 30, 2026, subject to an option to extend the maturity date. Outstanding borrowings may be repaid at any time prior to maturity. Interest rates associated with the 2021 Credit Facility are variable, so interest expense is impacted by changes in the interest rates, particularly for periods when there are outstanding borrowings under the revolving credit facility. Interest is payable quarterly. As of December 31, 2023, there were no borrowings outstanding under the 2021 Credit Facility, and we were in compliance with all financial covenants associated with such credit facility.

In October 2014, we issued $350.0 million aggregate principal amount of 4.375% Senior Notes due October 15, 2024 (the “2024 Notes”). We received net proceeds of $342.4 million from the issuance of the 2024 Notes, net of a discount of $1.4 million and issuance costs of $6.2 million. Interest is payable in cash semi-annually. The 2024 Notes are unsecured and rank equal in right of payment to all of our existing and future senior indebtedness. As of December 31, 2023, the net balance of the 2024 Notes of $349.3 million was classified as a current liability on our consolidated balance sheet.

In September 2022, we entered into a $300.0 million three-year senior non-amortizing term loan facility due on September 7, 2025, with a group of lenders led by Bank of America, N.A., as administrative agent (the “2025 Term Loan”). The 2025 Term Loan is unsecured and ranks equal in right of payment to all of our unsecured indebtedness. Interest rates associated with the 2025 Term Loan are variable, so interest expense is impacted by changes in interest rates. Interest is payable quarterly. As of December 31, 2023, we were in compliance with all financial covenants associated with the 2025 Term Loan.

For additional information relating to our debt arrangements, see Note 5 in the notes to consolidated financial statements.

We expect that current cash and cash equivalent balances, cash flows that are generated from operations and financing activities will be sufficient to meet the needs of our domestic and international operating activities, and other capital and liquidity requirements, including acquisitions, payments on our 2024 Notes and share repurchases for at least the next 12 months and thereafter for the foreseeable future.

As of December 31, 2023, we did not have any significant off-balance sheet arrangements that are reasonably likely to have a material current or future effect on our operating results or financial condition.

In preparing our consolidated financial statements, we make assumptions, judgments and estimates that can have a significant impact on our revenue, operating income and net income, as well as on the value of certain assets and liabilities on our consolidated balance sheets. We base our assumptions, judgments and estimates on historical experience and various other factors that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results could differ materially from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions. At least quarterly, we evaluate our assumptions, judgments and estimates, and make changes as deemed necessary.

We believe that the assumptions, judgments and estimates involved in revenue recognition, the accounting for income taxes and business combinations have the greatest potential impact on our consolidated financial statements; therefore, we consider these to be our critical accounting estimates. For information on our significant accounting policies, see Note 2 in the notes to consolidated financial statements.

Our contracts with customers often include promises to transfer multiple software and/or IP licenses, hardware and services, including professional services, technical support services, and rights to unspecified updates to a customer. These contracts require us to apply judgment in identifying and evaluating any terms and conditions in contracts which may impact revenue recognition. Determining whether licenses and services are distinct performance obligations that should be accounted for separately, or not distinct and thus accounted for together, requires significant judgment. In some arrangements, such as most of our IP license arrangements, we have concluded that the licenses and associated services are distinct from each other. In other arrangements, like our time-based software arrangements, the licenses and certain services are not distinct from each other. Our time-based software arrangements include multiple software licenses and updates to the licensed software products, as well as technical support, and we have concluded that these promised goods and services are a single, combined performance obligation.

Judgment is required to determine the stand-alone selling prices (“SSPs”) for each distinct performance obligation. We rarely license or sell products on a standalone basis, so we are required to estimate the SSP for each performance obligation. In instances where the SSP is not directly observable because we do not sell the license, product or service separately, we determine the SSP using information that may include market conditions and other observable inputs. We typically have more than one SSP for individual performance obligations due to the stratification of those items by classes of customers and circumstances. In these instances, we may use information such as the size of the customer and geographic region of the customer in determining the SSP.

Revenue is recognized over time for our combined performance obligations that include software licenses, updates, and technical support as well as for maintenance and professional services that are separate performance obligations. For our professional services, revenue is recognized over time, generally using costs incurred or hours expended to measure progress. Judgment is required in estimating project status and the costs necessary to complete projects. A number of internal and external factors can affect these estimates, including labor rates, utilization and efficiency variances and specification and testing requirement changes. For our other performance obligations recognized over time, revenue is generally recognized using a time-based measure of progress reflecting generally consistent efforts to satisfy those performance obligations throughout the arrangement term.

If a group of agreements are so closely related that they are, in effect, part of a single arrangement, such agreements are deemed to be one arrangement for revenue recognition purposes. We exercise significant judgment to evaluate the relevant facts and circumstances in determining whether the separate agreements should be accounted for separately or as, in substance, a single arrangement. Our judgments about whether a group of contracts comprise a single arrangement can affect the allocation of consideration to the distinct performance obligations, which could have an effect on results of operations for the periods involved.

We are required to estimate the total consideration expected to be received from contracts with customers. In some circumstances, the consideration expected to be received is variable based on the specific terms of the contract or based on our expectations of the term of the contract. Generally, we have not experienced significant returns or refunds to customers. These estimates require significant judgment and the change in these estimates could have an effect on our results of operations during the periods involved.

We are subject to income taxes in the United States and numerous foreign jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required in evaluating and estimating our provision for these taxes. There are many transactions that occur during the ordinary course of business for which the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Our provision for income taxes could be adversely affected by our earnings being lower than anticipated in countries where we have lower statutory rates and higher than anticipated in countries where we have higher statutory rates, losses incurred in jurisdictions for which we are not able to realize the related tax benefit, changes in foreign currency exchange rates, entry into new businesses and geographies and changes to our existing businesses, acquisitions and investments, changes in our deferred tax assets and liabilities including changes in our assessment of valuation allowances, changes in the relevant tax laws or interpretations of these tax laws, and developments in current and future tax examinations.

We only recognize the tax benefit of an income tax position if we judge that it is more likely than not that the tax position will be sustained, solely on its technical merits, in a tax audit including resolution of any related appeals or litigation processes. To make this judgment, we must interpret complex and sometimes ambiguous tax laws, regulations and administrative practices. If we judge that an income tax position meets this recognition threshold, then we must measure the amount of the tax benefit to be recognized by estimating the largest amount of tax benefit that has a greater than 50% cumulative probability of being realized upon settlement with a taxing authority that has full knowledge of all of the relevant facts. It is inherently difficult and subjective to estimate such amounts, as this requires us to determine the probability of various possible settlement outcomes. We must reevaluate our income tax positions on a quarterly basis to consider factors such as changes in facts or circumstances, changes in tax law, effectively settled issues under audit, the lapse of applicable statute of limitations, and new audit activity. Such a change in recognition or measurement would result in recognition of a tax benefit or an additional charge to the tax provision. For a more detailed description of our unrecognized tax benefits, see Note 8 in the notes to consolidated financial statements.

When we acquire businesses, we allocate the purchase price to the acquired tangible assets and assumed liabilities, including deferred revenue, liabilities associated with the fair value of contingent consideration and acquired identifiable intangible assets. Any residual purchase price is recorded as goodwill. The allocation of the purchase price requires us to make significant estimates in determining the fair values of these acquired assets and assumed liabilities, especially with respect to intangible assets and goodwill. These estimates are based on information obtained from management of the acquired companies, our assessment of this information, and historical experience. These estimates can include, but are not limited to, the cash flows that an acquired business is expected to generate in the future, the cash flows that specific assets acquired with that business are expected to generate in the future, the appropriate weighted average cost of capital, and the cost savings expected to be derived from acquiring an asset. These estimates are inherently uncertain and unpredictable, and if different estimates were used, the purchase price for the acquisition could be allocated to the acquired assets and assumed liabilities differently from the allocation that we have made to the acquired assets and assumed liabilities. In addition, unanticipated events and circumstances may occur that may affect the accuracy or validity of such estimates, and if such events occur, we may be required to adjust the value allocated to acquired assets or assumed liabilities.

We also make significant judgments and estimates when we assign useful lives to the definite-lived intangible assets identified as part of our acquisitions. These estimates are inherently uncertain and if we used different estimates, the useful life over which we amortize intangible assets would be different. In addition, unanticipated events and circumstances may occur that may impact the useful life assigned to our intangible assets, which would impact our amortization of intangible assets expense and our results of operations.

During fiscal 2023, we acquired intangible assets of $41.0 million. The fair value of the intangible assets acquired was determined using variations of the income approach that utilizes unobservable inputs classified as Level 3 measurements.

For existing technology, the fair value was determined by applying the relief-from-royalty method. This method is based on the application of a royalty rate to forecasted revenue to quantify the benefit of owning the intangible asset rather than paying a royalty for use of the asset. To estimate royalty savings over time, we projected revenue from the acquired existing technology over the estimated remaining life of the technology, including the effect of assumed technological obsolescence, before applying an assumed royalty rate. We assumed technological obsolescence at rates between 10% and 13% annually, before applying an assumed royalty rate between 25% and 30%.

For agreements and relationships, the fair value was determined by using the multi-period excess earnings method. This method reflects the present value of the projected cash flows that are expected to be generated from existing customers, less charges representing the contribution of other assets to those cash flows. Projected income from existing customer relationships was determined using customer retention rates between 70% and 90%. The present value of operating cash flows from existing customers was determined using discount rates between 12% and 15%.

We believe that our estimates and assumptions related to the fair value of our acquired intangible assets are reasonable, but significant judgment is involved.

For additional information about the adoption of new accounting standards, see Note 2 in the notes to consolidated financial statements.

Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

A material portion of our revenue, expenses and business activities are transacted in the U.S. dollar. In certain foreign countries where we price our products and services in U.S. dollars, a decrease in value of the local currency relative to the U.S. dollar results in an increase in the prices for our products and services compared to those products of our competitors that are priced in local currency. This could result in our prices being uncompetitive in certain markets.

In certain countries where we may invoice customers in the local currency, our revenue benefits from a weaker dollar and is adversely affected by a stronger dollar. The opposite impact occurs in countries where we record expenses in local currencies. In those cases, our costs and expenses benefit from a stronger dollar and are adversely affected by a weaker dollar. The fluctuations in our operating expenses outside the United States resulting from volatility in foreign exchange rates are not generally moderated by corresponding fluctuations in revenue from existing contracts.

We enter into foreign currency forward exchange contracts to protect against currency exchange risks associated with existing assets and liabilities. A foreign currency forward exchange contract acts as a hedge by increasing in value when underlying assets decrease in value or underlying liabilities increase in value due to changes in foreign exchange rates. Conversely, a foreign currency forward exchange contract decreases in value when underlying assets increase in value or underlying liabilities decrease in value due to changes in foreign exchange rates. These forward contracts are not designated as accounting hedges, so the unrealized gains and losses are recognized in other income (expense), net, in advance of the actual foreign currency cash flows with the fair value of these forward contracts being recorded as accrued liabilities or other current assets.

We do not use forward contracts for trading purposes. Our forward contracts generally have maturities of 90 days or less. We enter into foreign currency forward exchange contracts based on estimated future asset and liability exposures, and the effectiveness of our hedging program depends on our ability to estimate these future asset and liability exposures. Recognized gains and losses with respect to our current hedging activities will ultimately depend on how accurately we are able to match the amount of foreign currency forward exchange contracts with actual underlying asset and liability exposures.

The following table provides information about our foreign currency forward exchange contracts as of December 31, 2023. The information is provided in U.S. dollar equivalent amounts. The table presents the notional amounts, at contract exchange rates, and the weighted average contractual foreign currency exchange rates expressed as units of the foreign currency per U.S. dollar, which in some cases may not be the market convention for quoting a particular currency. All of these forward contracts mature during February 2024.

As of December 31, 2022, our foreign currency exchange contracts had an aggregate principal amount of $489.0 million, and an estimated fair value of $5.3 million.

We have performed sensitivity analyses as of December 31, 2023, and December 31, 2022, using a modeling technique that measures the change in the fair values arising from a hypothetical 10% change in the value of the U.S. dollar relative to applicable foreign currency exchange rates, with all other variables held constant. The foreign currency exchange rates we used in performing the sensitivity analysis were based on market rates in effect at each respective date. The sensitivity analyses indicated that a hypothetical 10% decrease in the value of the U.S. dollar would result in a decrease to the fair value of our foreign currency forward exchange contracts of $18.4 million and $4.2 million as of December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022, respectively, while a hypothetical 10% increase in the value of the U.S. dollar would result in an increase to the fair value of our foreign currency forward exchange contracts of $20.4 million and $7.2 million as of December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022, respectively.

We actively monitor our foreign currency risks, but our foreign currency hedging activities may not substantially offset the impact of fluctuations in currency exchange rates on our results of operations, cash flows and financial position.

Our exposure to market risk for changes in interest rates relates primarily to our portfolio of cash, cash equivalents, investments in debt securities and any balances outstanding on our 2021 Credit Facility and 2025 Term Loan. We are exposed to interest rate fluctuations in many of the world’s leading industrialized countries, but our interest income and expense is most sensitive to fluctuations in the general level of United States interest rates. In this regard, changes in United States interest rates affect the interest earned on our cash and cash equivalents and the costs associated with foreign currency hedges.

Our investments in debt securities had a fair value of approximately $49.8 million as of December 31, 2023, which may decline in value if market interest rates rise. Such variability in market interest rates may result in a negative impact on the results of our investment activities. As of December 31, 2023, an increase in the market rates of interest of 1% would result in a decrease in the fair values of our marketable debt securities by approximately $2.6 million. As of December 31, 2022, we did not hold investments in debt securities.

Interest rates under our 2021 Credit Facility and 2025 Term Loan are variable, so interest expense could be adversely affected by changes in interest rates, particularly for periods when we maintain a balance outstanding under the revolving credit facility. As of December 31, 2023, there were no borrowings outstanding under our 2021 Credit Facility and $300.0 million of borrowings outstanding under our 2025 Term Loan.

Interest rates for our 2021 Credit Facility and 2025 Term Loan can fluctuate based on changes in market interest rates and in interest rate margins that vary based on the credit ratings of our unsecured debt. Assuming all loans were fully drawn and we were to fully exercise our right to increase borrowing capacity under our 2021 Credit Facility and made no prepayments on our 2025 Term Loan, each quarter point change in interest rates would result in a $3.4 million change in annual interest expense on our indebtedness under our 2021 Credit Facility and 2025 Term Loan. For an additional description of the 2021 Credit Facility and 2025 Term Loan, see Note 5 in the notes to consolidated financial statements.

We have a portfolio of equity investments that includes marketable equity securities and non-marketable investments. Our equity investments are made primarily in connection with our strategic investment program. Under our strategic investment program, from time to time, we make cash investments in companies with technologies that are potentially strategically important to us. See Note 14 in the notes to consolidated financial statements for an additional description of these investments.

The financial statements required by Item 8 are submitted as a separate section of this Annual Report. See Part IV, Item 15, “Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules.”

None.

As required by Rule 13a-15 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) and our Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”), we evaluated the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act) as of December 31, 2023.

Based on their evaluation our CEO and CFO have concluded that, as of December 31, 2023, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective to provide reasonable assurance that the information required to be disclosed by us in our reports filed or submitted under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms and is accumulated and communicated to our management, including the CEO and CFO, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting during the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2023, that materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

Our management, including our CEO and CFO, does not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures or our internal control over financial reporting will prevent or detect all errors and all fraud. Internal control over financial reporting, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of internal control are met. Further, the design of internal control must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits of the control must be considered relative to their costs. While our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting are designed to provide reasonable assurance of their effectiveness, because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, within Cadence, have been detected.

Not applicable.

The information required by Item 10 as to directors is incorporated herein by reference from the sections entitled “Proposal 1 - Election of Directors” and, as applicable, “Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management - Delinquent Section 16(a) Reports” in Cadence’s definitive proxy statement for its 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. The executive officers of Cadence are listed at the end of Item 1 of Part I of this Annual Report.

The information required by Item 10 as to Cadence’s code of ethics is incorporated herein by reference from the section entitled “Corporate Governance - Code of Business Conduct” in Cadence’s definitive proxy statement for its 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.

The information required by Item 10 as to the director nomination process and Cadence’s Audit Committee is incorporated by reference from the section entitled “Board of Directors - Committees of the Board” in Cadence’s definitive proxy statement for its 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.

The information required by Item 11 is incorporated herein by reference from the sections entitled “Board of Directors - Components of Director Compensation,” “Board of Directors - Director Compensation for Fiscal 2023,” “Compensation Discussion and Analysis,” “Compensation Committee Report,” “Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation,” “Compensation of Executive Officers,” “Potential Payments Upon Termination or Change In Control” and “Pay Ratio Disclosure” in Cadence’s definitive proxy statement for its 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.