Typically, the acquisition of a software distributor isn’t big news.

But EMA Design Automation isn’t your ordinary distributor. And its purchase, by Cadence, isn’t your ordinary acquisition.

The EIPC Winter Conference in February was revealing for several reasons, not the least of which was that the view among the 125 primarily European electronics engineers and executives in attendance was their industry and governments had failed them by not acting more swiftly and vigorously to staunch the offshoring tide.