Avant Stock Tumbles on Theft Charges

The stock of Sunnyvale-based Avant Corp. lost nearly half of its value Tuesday, a day after the Santa Clara County district attorney filed felony charges against the company for allegedly stealing rival Cadence Design Systems Inc. technology. The stock fell $12 to close at $12.50 on Nasdaq. On Monday, the district attorney alleged that Avant, its president and other senior executives misappropriated San Jose-based Cadence’s Symbad, Froute, Groute, Qplace and Vsize technologies, and “then used that stolen technology to develop and market competing products.” “You have a major publicly traded company that appears to be founded on stolen technology,” said Santa Clara County Deputy Dist. Atty. Julius Finkelstein. Finkelstein said arrest warrants had been issued for all of the defendants and that bail was set at $100,000 each. All of the executives charged--including Avant Chief Executive Gerry Hsu--were former employees of Cadence Design Systems, prosecutors said. Avant denied the district attorney’s allegations. Separately, Cadence reported first-quarter net income of $37.1 million, or 37 cents per share, compared with $25.6 million, or 28 cents, a year ago.