Chip design software maker Synopsys has reached an agreement with activist investor Elliott Investment Management that will give one board seat to the activist investor’s managing partner Jesse Cohn, the company said on Wednesday.
The board is being expanded to 11 members with the appointment of Cohn, who will also join the board’s corporate governance and nominating committee.
Synopsys, which has a market valuation of about $100 billion and counts Tesla and Google parent Alphabet among its customers, has held discussions with Elliott for roughly two months.
Elliott pushed the company to improve its margins and Synopsys’ stock price has climbed roughly 20% since Elliott’s involvement became public. The hedge fund built a multi-billion-dollar investment in the company and initially suggested that it wanted three board seats.
Sunnyvale, California-based Synopsys has for decades been one of the main suppliers to Advanced Micro Devices, Nvidia and others of software used in arranging transistors on semiconductor chips.
Nvidia in December revealed it had invested $2 billion in Synopsys as part of an expanded multi-year tie-up.
Synopsys appointed Sassine Ghazi as CEO in January 2024.
Cohn is a managing partner at Elliott, along with Gordon Singer. He has expertise in technology investing and in March 2020 joined the Twitter board, leaving a year later.
"As an experienced board member, Jesse brings a uniquely differentiated perspective," said Aart de Geus, executive chair and founder of Synopsys.
