Cadence Design Systems Bringing 300 Jobs to Salt Lake City

Week of June 3, 2002
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Silicon Valley Does Salt Lake Valley

Flights from Salt Lake City International (pictured) can get Cadence employees to the company's California headquarters in an hour and a half. "It's easier than the commutes a lot of our people have in the Bay Area," the company's CEO commented.

Cadence Design Systems Bringing 300 Jobs to Salt Lake City

By JACK LYNE,
Site Selection Executive Editor of Interactive Publishing

SANDY, Utah — Silicon Valley-based Cadence Design Systems (www.cadence.com) is bringing 300 high-end jobs to Salt Lake Valley - and further expansion could be in the offing, the company says.
Cadence, which supplies electronic design products and services used in semiconductors, communication equipment and computers, will open its operation in Sandy, Utah (www.sandy-city.net). The city of some 100,000 residents sits 17.2 miles (27.5 kilometers) southeast of downtown Salt Lake City.
The Sandy location will be Cadence's newest corporate resource center. Real estate is one of the functions that will be located in the new shared-services operation, along with accounting, information technology, human resources and procurement.
Cadence President and CEO Ray Bingham
Cadence picked the Salt Lake City metro in part because of its "large, stable and well-educated work force, and it's easily accessible from our Silicon Valley headquarters," said President and Chief Executive Officer Ray Bingham (pictured).

Picking the Salt Lake City metro ends Cadence's two-year search, said President and Chief Executive Officer Ray Bingham.
"The Salt Lake City area offers a large, stable and well-educated work force, and it's easily accessible from our Silicon Valley headquarters," Bingham explained at the project announcement. "We are very excited about this new center. Utah is the perfect location for us as our worldwide infrastructure continues to grow and evolve."
Cadence also liked the area's numerous educational institutions, including the University of Utah in Salt Lake City (which also has a campus in Sandy), Brigham Young University in Provo and Salt Lake Community College. Cadence expects to collaborate with a number of local-area universities, Bingham said.
Employee-attracting quality-of-life pluses were another significant factor for the San Jose, Calif.-headquartered company, Bingham noted. A number of ski resorts and national parks are easily accessible from Sandy.

Governor Targeting Silicon Valley

Cadence's decision marked a win in Gov. Mike Leavitt's drive to enlarge Utah's high-tech sector - which has quietly grown to sizable proportions.
"The decision of Cadence to open a corporate office in Utah is yet another example of the value Utah offers to Silicon Valley firms," Leavitt said at the project announcement. "They considered over a hundred other metropolitan areas, but chose Utah for our work force, quality of life and business climate."
Leavitt created the Utah Technology Alliance, which includes the Economic Development Corp. of Utah (www.edcutah.org), state economic development officials and the governor's office. The alliance jointly targets Silicon Valley high-tech companies. Leavitt's recruiting efforts have included trips to Silicon Valley to personally plead the state's case.
Costs lower than the Bay Area's significantly enhanced Utah's appeal, Bingham told the The Desert News. "One of the things that we have found in developing our business is that not everyone can work in Silicon Valley," Bingham said. "Silicon Valley has its purpose, but it's a narrow and very expensive purpose."
Cadence will join a Salt Lake City high-tech presence that already includes the headquarters of MyFamily.com and Novell, as well as operations for Iomega and WordPerfect. Novell and WordPerfect were both founded by University of Utah professors.

Cadence liked the wide range of educational institutions and recreational opportunities easily accessible from Sandy (pictured).

Jobs, Wages Tied to $1.2 Million in Aid

Cadence will open its Sandy operation this summer with some 50 employees housed in leased space, the company said. The corporate resource center will grow to 300 employees over the next two to four years, said Bingham.
Cadence is receiving $1.2 million in incentives from the state's Industrial Assistance Fund. The funds will be awarded over a five-year period.
In return, Cadence has pledged to keep its jobs in Utah for at least five years. In addition, the company has committed to pay employees at least 125 percent of Salt Lake County's median annual wage of $27,600.
Some California-based leaders for the functions locating in Utah will come to Sandy to establish Cadence's new operation. Some of those moves will be permanent; others will be temporary relocations, the company said.

New Delhi: Prototype for Utah Growth?

Cadence's Sandy operation will be the company's fourth corporate resource center. The first was established in Austin, followed by centers in New Delhi, India, and Shanghai.
The rapid growth of Cadence's New Delhi center could be a precursor for the Utah operation's evolution, Bingham said. The Indian resource center began with 200 employees. It has since expanded to 400 workers and has added new functions that include writing software code. "Our experience with these kinds of centers is that it's a start," Bingham said.
Cadence's bottom line bodes well for expansion. Despite the high-tech sector's overall slump, the company is projecting a 6 percent increase in total revenues this year, finishing with $1.7 billion in sales. Cadence's first-quarter net income of some $60 million marked a 44 percent increase from the previous year.
Cadence has 5,600 employees worldwide.

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