Ankush Oberai

Ankush Oberai (born April 11, 1958, in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India) is an American businessperson and high tech entrepreneur. In 1989, he co-founded Knights Technology, a supplier of process management tools for the semiconductor industry. Knights Technology has subsequently been sold three times. He is currently senior director at Synopsys Inc.

Oberai holds patents in computer design.

Early and personal life
Oberai was born in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, to refugee parents originally from Chakwal, Punjab, British India. He attended Shivaji University in Sangli, Maharashtra, India, to study electrical engineering, graduating in 1981. He then came to Orlando, Florida, on a full scholarship to complete his Master’s in Electrical Engineering from the University of Central Florida. His master’s thesis was on “design methodology of very large scale integration.”

Career
In 1983, Oberai began a job at NCA/Silvar-Lisco as a chip design engineer, eventually moving up to Senior Director of Engineering, Sales, and Marketing.

In 1989, Oberai left NCA/Silvar-Lisco to co-found Knights Technology, a supplier of process management tools for the semiconductor industry, with the flagship product being YieldManager.

Knights Technology was acquired by Electroglas in 1997, which was the first of four times that the company would be sold.

Knights Technology had become an industry leader in yield enhancement software for integrated circuit manufacturing, and Electroglas felt it added critical, synergistic, yield management capabilities to the Electroglas suite of data collection and management solutions. At the time, Knights products included Merlin's Framework, the recognized industry standard in CAD navigation software for IC design, failure analysis, defect review, and debugging; and the YieldManager system, which integrates data from process, inspection, test and metrology equipment to help determine which process zones or tools contribute to yield loss. At Electroglas, Oberai served as general manager and vice president of the Knights division.

In 2003, FEI Company acquired Knights Technology from Electroglas. Knights Technology became known as FEI Knights. At FEI Company, Ankush acted as General Manager and Vice President.

In November 2006, Ankush exited Knights Technology for a third time. Magma Design Automation purchased FEI Knights from FEI Company, promising to build a new bridge between the semiconductor fabrication environment and IC design. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. At Magma Design Automation, Ankush acted as General Manager and Vice President.

In early 2012, EDA and IP vendor Synopsys Inc. signed a definitive agreement to acquire rival EDA vendor Magma Design Automation Inc., which was the parent company of Knights Technology, in a deal worth about $507 million, paying about $7.35 for each share of Magma. Synopsys said it planned to fund the deal with a combination of cash and debt. The merger was finalized on February 22, 2012 with the cash value of transaction at about $523 million, or $7.35 per Magma share. After the acquisition, Ankush became a Senior Director at Synopsys Inc.