SYNOPSYS INC - Annual Report: 2011 (Form 10-K)

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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

For the year ended October 31, 2011

OR

For the transition period from                      to                     

Commission File Number 0-19807

SYNOPSYS, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

700 East Middlefield Road, Mountain View, California 94043

(Address of principal executive offices, including zip code)

(650) 584-5000

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.    Yes  x    No  ¨

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.    Yes  ¨    No  x

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  x    No  ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).    Yes  x    No  ¨

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§ 229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.  ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).    Yes  ¨    No  x

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates computed by reference to the price at which the common equity was last sold as of the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter was approximately $2.5 billion. Aggregate market value excludes an aggregate of approximately 55.2 million shares of common stock held by the registrant’s officers and directors and by each person known by the registrant to own 5% or more of the outstanding common stock on such date. Exclusion of shares held by any of these persons should not be construed to indicate that such person possesses the power, direct or indirect, to direct or cause the direction of the management or policies of the registrant, or that such person is controlled by or under common control with the registrant.

On December 3, 2011, 144.2 million shares of the registrant’s Common Stock, $0.01 par value, were outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s Proxy Statement relating to the registrant’s 2011 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, scheduled to be held on April 3, 2012, are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K where indicated. Except as expressly incorporated by reference, the registrant’s Proxy Statement shall not be deemed to be part of this report.

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SYNOPSYS, INC.

ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K

Year ended October 31, 2011

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Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

In addition to current and historical information, this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this Form 10-K or Annual Report) contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act) and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act). These statements can, in some cases, be identified by the use of terms such as “may,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “should,” “anticipate,” “expect,” “intend,” “believe,” “estimate”, “project” or “continue,” the negatives of such terms, or other comparable terminology. This Form 10-K includes, among others, forward-looking statements regarding our expectations about:

These statements involve certain known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward- looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, those listed in Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors of this Form 10-K. The information included herein is given as of the filing date of this Form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and future events or circumstances could differ significantly from these forward-looking statements. Accordingly, we caution readers not to place undue reliance on these statements. Unless required by law, we undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements. Readers are urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures made in this report and in other documents we file from time to time with the SEC that attempt to advise interested parties of the risks and factors that may affect our business.

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PART I

Introduction

Synopsys, Inc. is a world leader in supplying the electronic design automation (EDA) software that engineers use to design, create prototypes for and test integrated circuits (ICs), also known as chips. We also provide software and hardware used to develop the systems that incorporate integrated circuits and the software that runs on those integrated circuits. Our intellectual property (IP) products are pre-designed circuits that engineers use as components of larger chip designs rather than designing those circuits themselves. To complement these product offerings, we provide technical services to support our solutions and we help our customers develop chips and electronic systems.

Corporate Information

We incorporated in 1986 in North Carolina and reincorporated in Delaware in 1987. Our headquarters are located at 700 East Middlefield Road, Mountain View, California 94043, and our telephone number there is (650) 584-5000. We have approximately 70 offices worldwide.

Our annual and quarterly reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q (including related filings in XBRL format), current reports on Form 8-K, and Proxy Statements relating to our annual meetings of stockholders, and amendments to these reports, as well as filings made by our executive officers and directors, are available on our Internet website (www.synopsys.com) free of charge. We post these reports to our website as soon as practicable after we file them with, or furnish them to, the SEC (www.sec.gov). The contents of our website are not part of this Form 10-K.

Background

Recent years have seen a remarkable proliferation of consumer and wireless electronic products, particularly mobile devices. The growth of the Internet and cloud computing has provided people with new ways to create, store and share information. At the same time, the increasing use of electronics in cars, buildings, appliances and other consumer products is creating a new landscape of “smart” devices.

These developments depend, in large part, on chips. It is common for a single chip to contain many components (processor, communications, memory, custom logic, input/output) combined into a single System-on-Chip (SoC), resulting in highly complex chip designs. The most complex chips today contain more than a billion transistors, the basic building blocks for integrated circuits, each of which may have features that are less than 1/1,000th the diameter of a human hair.

In addition, due to the popularity of mobile devices and other electronic products, there is increasing demand for integrated circuits and systems with greater functionality and performance, reduced size, and less power consumption, all at shorter times-to-market and lower prices. In other words, innovation in chip and system design often hinges on “better,” “sooner,” and “cheaper.”

Synopsys plays an important role in the vibrant electronics market by providing the software tools, hardware and other technologies that designers use to create chips and systems. The designer’s task is to determine how best to locate and connect the IC building blocks, verifying that the resulting design behaves as intended and ensuring that the design can be manufactured efficiently and cost-effectively. This task is a complicated, multi-step process that is both expensive and time-consuming. We offer a wide range of products that help designers at different steps in the overall design process, both for the design of individual integrated circuits and for the design of larger systems. Our products can increase designer productivity and efficiency by automating tasks, keeping track of large amounts of design data, adding intelligence to the design process, facilitating reuse of past designs and reducing errors. Our global service and support engineers also provide expert technical support and design assistance to our customers.

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Products and Services

Revenue from our products and services is reported in four groups: Core EDA (which includes the Galaxy™ Design Platform, the Discovery™ Verification Platform and our FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) design products), IP and System-Level Solutions, Manufacturing Solutions, and Professional Services.

Core EDA Solutions

The process of designing integrated circuits contains many complex steps: architecture definition, RTL (register transfer level) design, functional/RTL verification, logic design or synthesis, gate-level verification, floorplanning, and place and route, to name just a few. Designers use our Core EDA products to automate the integrated circuit design process and to reduce errors. We offer a large number of Core EDA products intended to address the process comprehensively. Our Core EDA products generally fall into the following suites: the Galaxy Design Platform, which includes tools to design an integrated circuit, the Discovery Verification Platform, which includes tools to verify that an integrated circuit behaves as intended, and the FPGA design products.

Galaxy Design Platform

Our Galaxy Design Platform provides our customers with a single, integrated chip design solution that includes industry-leading individual products and incorporates common libraries and consistent timing, delay calculation and constraints throughout the design process. The platform allows designers the flexibility to integrate internally developed and third-party tools. With this advanced functionality, common foundation and flexibility, our Galaxy Design Platform helps reduce design times, decrease integration costs and minimize the risks inherent in advanced, complex integrated circuit designs. Our products span both digital and analog/mixed-signal designs.

The principal products included in the Galaxy Design Platform are the IC Compiler™ physical design solution, Design Compiler^® logic synthesis product, Galaxy Custom Designer^® physical design solution for analog/mixed-signal designs, PrimeTime^®/PrimeTime SI timing analysis products, StarRC™ product for extraction, and IC Validator for physical verification.

Discovery Verification Platform

Our Discovery Verification Platform is a comprehensive, integrated portfolio of functional, analog/mixed-signal, formal and low-power verification products. The platform includes design-for-verification methodologies and provides a consistent control environment to help significantly improve the speed, breadth and accuracy of our customers’ functional and mixed-signal verification efforts. The Discovery Verification Platform’s components support industry standards and are tightly coupled together through a direct kernel integration for highest throughput mixed-signal simulation.

The principal products included in the Discovery Verification Platform are the VCS^® comprehensive RTL verification solution, CustomSim™ FastSPICE circuit simulation and analysis product, HSPICE^® circuit simulator, CustomExplorer™ Ultra mixed-signal regression and analysis environment and Formality^® formal verification sign-off solution.

FPGA Design Products

FPGAs are complex chips that can be customized or programmed to perform a specific function after they are manufactured. For FPGA design, we offer Synplify^® Pro and Premier implementation and Identify^® debug software tools.

Manufacturing Solutions

Our Manufacturing Solutions products and technologies enable semiconductor manufacturers to more quickly develop new fabrication processes that produce production-level yields. These products

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are used in the early research and development phase and the production phase. In the production phase, manufacturers use these products to convert IC design layouts into the masks used to manufacture the devices.

Our Manufacturing Solutions include Technology-CAD (TCAD) device and process simulation products, Proteus OPC optical proximity correction (OPC) products, CATS^® mask data preparation product, and Yield Explorer and Odyssey Yield Management solutions.

IP and System-Level Solutions

IP Products

As more functionality converges into a single device, the number of third-party provided IP blocks incorporated into chip designs is rapidly increasing. Synopsys is a leading provider of high-quality, silicon-proven IP solutions for SoCs. The broad DesignWare^® IP portfolio includes:

System-Level Solutions

Optimizing the system-level design earlier in the development cycle, including both hardware and software components, is increasingly important for customers to meet their performance, time-to-market, and development cost goals. Synopsys has the industry’s broadest portfolio of tools, models and services for the system-level design of SoCs.

Synopsys’ Platform Architect™ enables early and rapid exploration of SoC architectural trade-offs. To speed the creation, implementation and verification of differentiated IP blocks, Synopsys offers SPW™ and System Studio™ for algorithm design, Processor Designer™ for custom processor design, and Synphony Model™ and C Compiler for high-level synthesis.

Escalating software content and complexity in today’s electronic devices are driving the adoption of new tools and methods to accelerate software development and ease hardware-software integration and system validation. Our system-level portfolio includes prototyping technologies that improve the productivity of both hardware and software development teams. Synopsys’ Virtualizer™ tool and broad portfolio of transaction-level models enable the creation of virtual prototypes, fully functional software models of complete systems that enable engineers to start software development up to twelve months earlier than traditional methods. Synopsys’ HAPS^® FPGA-based prototyping systems integrate high performance hardware and software tools with real-world interfaces to enable faster hardware-software integration and full system validation.

Professional Services and Training

Synopsys provides consulting and design services that address all phases of the SoC development process. These services assist Synopsys customers with new tool and methodology adoption, chip architecture and specification development, functional and low power design and verification, and physical implementation and signoff. We also provide a broad range of expert training and workshops on our latest tools and methodologies.

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Customer Service and Technical Support

A high level of customer service and support is critical to the adoption and successful use of our products. We provide technical support for our products through both field-based and corporate-based application engineering teams. Customers who purchase Technology Subscription Licenses (TSLs) receive software maintenance services bundled with their license fee. Customers who purchase term licenses and perpetual licenses may purchase these services separately. See Product Sales and Licensing Agreements below.

Software maintenance services include minor product enhancements, bug fixes and access to our technical support center for primary support. Software maintenance also includes access to the SolvNet^® portal, our web-based support solution that gives customers access to Synopsys’ complete design knowledge database. Updated daily, the SolvNet portal includes documentation, design tips and answers to user questions. Customers can also engage, for additional charges, our worldwide network of applications consultants for additional support needs.

In addition, Synopsys also offers training workshops designed to increase customer design proficiency and productivity with our products. Workshops cover Synopsys products and methodologies used in our design and verification flows, as well as specialized modules addressing system design, logic design, physical design, simulation and test. We offer regularly scheduled public and private courses in a variety of locations worldwide, as well as Virtual Classroom on-demand and live online training.

Product Warranties

We generally warrant our products to be free from defects in media and to substantially conform to material specifications for a period of 90 days for our software products and for up to six months for our hardware products. In certain cases, we also provide our customers with limited indemnification with respect to claims that their use of our software products infringe on United States patents, copyrights, trademarks or trade secrets. We have not experienced material warranty or indemnity claims to date.

Support for Industry Standards

We actively create and support standards that help our customers increase productivity, facilitate efficient design flows, improve interoperability of tools from different vendors, and ensure connectivity, functionality and interoperability of IP building blocks. Standards in the electronic design industry can be established by formal accredited organizations, from industry consortia, by company licensing made available to all, from de facto usage, or through open source licensing.

Synopsys’ products support more than 60 standards, including the most commonly used hardware description languages: SystemVerilog, Verilog, VHDL, and SystemC. Our products utilize numerous industry standard data formats, application programming interfaces, and databases for the exchange of design data among our tools, other EDA vendors’ products, and applications that customers develop internally. We also comply with a wide range of industry standards within our IP product family to ensure usability and interconnectivity.

Sales, Distribution and Backlog

We market our products and services primarily through direct sales in the United States and principal foreign markets. We typically distribute our software products and documentation to customers electronically, but provide physical media (i.e., CD-ROMs) when requested by the customer.

We maintain sales/support centers throughout the United States. Outside the United States, we maintain sales, support or service offices in Canada, multiple countries in Europe, Israel, Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan and other countries in Asia. Our foreign headquarters for financial and tax purposes is located in Dublin, Ireland. Our offices are further described under Part I, Item 2, Properties.

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In fiscal 2011, 2010 and 2009, an aggregate of 54%, 52% and 51%, respectively, of Synopsys’ total revenue was derived from sales outside of the United States. Geographic revenue, which is based on the customer site location, is shown below as a percentage of total revenue for the last three fiscal years:

Additional information relating to domestic and foreign operations, including revenue and long-lived assets by geographic area, is contained in Note 12 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Part II, Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data and is included herein.

Synopsys’ backlog was approximately $2.5 billion on October 31, 2011, representing a 4% increase from backlog of $2.4 billion on October 31, 2010 and primarily resulted from the timing of large contract renewals. Backlog represents committed orders that are expected to be recognized as revenue over the following three years. Backlog may not be a reliable predictor of our future sales as business conditions may change and technologies may evolve, and customers may seek to renegotiate their arrangements or default on their payment obligations. For this and other reasons, we may not be able to recognize expected revenue from backlog when anticipated.

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Revenue attributable to each of our four platforms established for management reporting purposes is shown below as a percentage of total revenue for the last three fiscal years:

Revenue derived from Intel Corporation and its subsidiaries in the aggregate accounted for 10.6%, 10.9%, and 10.8% of our total revenue in fiscal 2011, 2010 and 2009, respectively.

Research and Development

Our future performance depends in large part on our ability to further enhance and integrate our design and verification platforms and to expand our manufacturing, IP and system-level product offerings. Research and development on existing and new products is primarily conducted within each product group. We also use targeted acquisitions to augment our own research and development efforts.

Our research and development expenses were $491.9 million, $449.2 million and $419.9 million in fiscal 2011, 2010 and 2009, respectively. Our capitalized software development costs were approximately $3.0 million, $2.9 million and $3.0 million in fiscal 2011, 2010 and 2009, respectively.

Competition

The EDA industry is highly competitive. We compete against other EDA vendors and against our customers’ own design tools and internal design capabilities. In general, we compete principally on technology leadership, product quality and features (including ease-of-use), license terms, post-contract customer support, interoperability with our own and other vendors’ products, price and payment terms.

Our competitors include EDA vendors that offer varying ranges of products and services, such as Cadence Design Systems, Inc., Mentor Graphics Corporation and Magma Design Automation, Inc. We also compete with other EDA vendors, including frequent new entrants to the marketplace, that offer products focused on one or more discrete phases of the IC design process, as well as with customers’ internally developed design tools and capabilities. In the IP area, we compete primarily with our customers’ internally developed IP. No one factor drives an EDA customer’s buying decision, and we compete on all fronts to capture a higher portion of our customers’ budgets.

Product Sales and Licensing Agreements

We typically license our software to customers under non-exclusive license agreements that transfer title to the media only and restrict use of our software to specified purposes within specified geographical areas. The majority of our licenses are network licenses that allow a number of individual users to access

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the software on a defined network, including, in some cases, regional or global networks. License fees depend on the type of license, product mix and number of copies of each product licensed.

In many cases, we provide our customers the right to “re-mix” a portion of the software they initially licensed for other specified Synopsys products. For example, a customer may use our front-end design products for a portion of the license term and then exchange such products for back-end place and route software for the remainder of the term in order to complete the customer’s IC design. This practice helps assure the customer’s access to the complete design flow needed to design its product. The ability to offer this right to customers often gives us an advantage over competitors who offer a narrower range of products, because customers can obtain more of their design flow from a single vendor. At the same time, because in such cases the customer need not obtain a new license and pay an additional license fee for the use of the additional products, the use of these arrangements could result in reduced revenue compared to licensing the individual products separately without re-mix rights.

We currently offer our software products under various license types: renewable TSLs, term licenses and perpetual licenses. For a full discussion of these licenses, see Part II, Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates and Results of Operations—Revenue Background.

We typically license our DesignWare Core intellectual property products under nonexclusive license agreements that provide usage rights for specific applications. Fees under these licenses are typically charged on a per design basis plus, in some cases, royalties.

Finally, our Global Technical Services team typically provides design consulting services to our customers under consulting agreements with statements of work specific to each project.

Proprietary Rights

Synopsys primarily relies upon a combination of copyright, patent, trademark and trade secret laws and license and nondisclosure agreements to establish and protect its proprietary rights. We have a diversified portfolio of more than 1,400 patents issued. Our issued patents have expiration dates through 2031. Our patents primarily relate to our products and the technology used in connection with our products. Our source code is protected both as a trade secret and as an unpublished copyrighted work. However, third parties may develop similar technology independently. In addition, effective copyright and trade secret protection may be unavailable or limited in some foreign countries. We currently hold United States and foreign patents on some of the technologies included in our products and will continue to pursue additional patents in the future. We are not significantly dependent upon any single patent, copyright, trademark or license with respect to our proprietary rights.

In many cases, under our customer agreements and other license agreements, we offer to indemnify our customers if the licensed products infringe on a third party’s intellectual property rights. As a result, we are from time to time subject to claims that our products infringe on these third party rights.

Employees

As of October 31, 2011, Synopsys had 6,803 employees, of which 3,003 were based in the United States.

Acquisitions in Fiscal 2011

For information about acquisitions we completed during fiscal 2011, see Note 3 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements which information is included herein.

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Executive Officers of the Registrant

The executive officers of Synopsys and their ages as of December 15, 2011 were:

Aart J. de Geus co-founded Synopsys and has served as Chairman of our Board of Directors since February 1998 and Chief Executive Officer since January 1994. Since the inception of Synopsys in December 1986, he has held a variety of positions at Synopsys, including President, Senior Vice President of Engineering and Senior Vice President of Marketing. Dr. de Geus has served as a member of Synopsys’s Board of Directors since 1986, and served as Chairman of the Board from 1986 to 1992 and again from 1998 until present. Dr. de Geus has also served on the board of directors of Applied Materials, Inc. since July 2007. Dr. de Geus holds an M.S.E.E. from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Southern Methodist University.

Chi-Foon Chan has served as our Chief Operating Officer since April 1997 and as our President and a member of our Board since February 1998. Dr. Chan joined Synopsys in May 1990 and has held various senior management positions, including Executive Vice President, Office of the President from September 1996 to February 1998 and Senior Vice President, Design Tools Group from February 1994 to April 1997. Dr. Chan has also held senior management and engineering positions at NEC Electronics and Intel Corporation. Dr. Chan holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.

Brian M. Beattie has served as our Chief Financial Officer since January 2006. From October 1999 to January 2006, he was Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer of SupportSoft, Inc. From May 1998 to May 1999, he served as Vice President of Finance, Mergers and Acquisitions of Nortel Networks Corporation. From July 1996 to April 1998, Mr. Beattie served as Group Vice President of Meridian Solutions of Nortel Networks Corporation. From February 1993 to June 1996, Mr. Beattie served as Vice President of Finance, Enterprise Networks, for Nortel Networks Corporation. Mr. Beattie has served on the board of directors of Openwave Systems Inc. since December 2010. Mr. Beattie holds a Bachelor of Commerce and an M.B.A. from Concordia University in Montreal.

Joseph W. Logan has served as our Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales since September 2006. Previously, he was head of sales for Synopsys’ North America East region from September 2001 to September 2006. Prior to Synopsys, Mr. Logan was head of North American Sales and Support at Avant! Corporation. Mr. Logan holds a B.S.E.E. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Brian E. Cabrera has served as our Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary since June 2006. From August 1999 to June 2006, he held various positions with Callidus Software, most recently as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary and prior to 2004 as General Counsel and Vice President of Operations and Human Resources. Prior to Callidus, Mr. Cabrera held senior legal positions at PeopleSoft, Netscape Communications, and Silicon Graphics. Mr. Cabrera holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Philosophy and a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Southern California, as well as a Juris Doctorate from the University of Southern California Law School.

There are no family relationships among any Synopsys executive officers or directors.

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A description of the risk factors associated with our business is set forth below. Investors should carefully consider these risks and uncertainties before investing in our common stock.

The continued uncertainty in the global economy, and its potential impact on the semiconductor and electronics industries in particular, may negatively affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

As a result of the recent global recession, the global economy experienced significant uncertainty, stock market volatility, tightened credit markets, concerns about both deflation and inflation, reduced demand for products, lower consumer confidence, reduced capital spending, liquidity concerns and business insolvencies. Further declines, and uncertainty about future economic conditions, could negatively impact our customers’ businesses, reducing demand for our products and adversely affecting our business.

The recent global recession adversely affected the semiconductor industry. Semiconductor companies generally remain cautious and focused on their costs, including their research and development budgets which capture spending on EDA products and services. These factors could among other things limit our ability to maintain or increase our sales or recognize revenue from committed contracts and in turn adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

Under our business model, we generally expect more than 90% of our total revenue to be recurring revenue, as a substantial majority of our customers pay for licenses over a three-year period. However, the turmoil and uncertainty caused by recent economic conditions caused some of our customers to postpone their decision-making, decrease their spending and/or delay their payments to us. Future periods of decreased committed average annual revenue, customer bankruptcies, or consolidation among our customers, could adversely affect our year-over-year revenue growth.

The recent global recession also adversely affected the banking and financial industry. If the global economy continues to experience uncertainty, our ability to obtain credit on favorable terms could be jeopardized. Furthermore, we rely on several large financial institutions to act as counterparties under our foreign currency forward contracts, provide credit and banking transactions and deposit services worldwide. Should any of our banking partners declare bankruptcy or otherwise default on their obligations, it could adversely affect our financial results and our business.

We cannot predict if or when global economic confidence will be restored. Accordingly, our future business and financial results are subject to considerable uncertainty, and our stock price is at risk of volatile change. If economic conditions fail to significantly improve for any extended period of time or deteriorate in the future, or, in particular, if semiconductor industry revenues do not continue to grow, our future revenues and financial results could be adversely affected. Conversely, in the event of future improvements in economic conditions for our customers, the positive impact on our revenues and financial results may be deferred due to our business model.

The growth of our business depends on the semiconductor and electronics industries.

The growth of the EDA industry as a whole, and our business in particular, is dependent on the semiconductor and electronics industries. The semiconductor industry is currently anticipated to have modest growth in 2012. A substantial portion of our business and revenue depends upon the commencement of new design projects by semiconductor manufacturers and their customers. The increasing complexity of designs of SoCs and ICs, and customers’ concerns about managing costs, have previously led and in the future could lead to a decrease in design starts and design activity in general, with some customers focusing more on one discrete phase of the design process. Demand for our products and services could decrease and our financial condition and results of operations could

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be adversely affected if the semiconductor and electronics industries do not continue to grow, or grow at a slower rate. Additionally, as the EDA industry matures, consolidation has increased competition for a greater share of our customers’ EDA spending. This increased competition may cause our revenue growth rate to decline and exert downward pressure on our operating margins, which may have an adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

We may not be able to realize the potential financial or strategic benefits of the acquisitions we complete, or find suitable target businesses and technology to acquire, which could hurt our ability to grow our business, develop new products or sell our products.

Acquisitions are an important part of our growth strategy. We have completed a significant number of acquisitions in recent years, including the acquisitions of CoWare, Inc., VaST Systems Technology Corporation, and Virage Logic Corporation. On November 30, 2011, we entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which we, through our wholly owned subsidiary, have agreed to acquire 100% of the outstanding common stock of Magma Design Automation, Inc. (Magma) in exchange for cash. Our pending acquisition of Magma carries certain risks, including our ability to obtain governmental approvals of the acquisition in a timely manner or at all, the risk that such approvals are not obtained and we must pay a break-up fee, risks related to class action lawsuits filed by purported Magma stockholders that could be costly, time-consuming and affect our ability to close the transaction, and the risk that Magma stockholders will not approve the acquisition.

We expect to make additional acquisitions in the future, but we may not find suitable acquisition targets or we may not be able to consummate desired acquisitions due to unfavorable credit markets or other risks, which could harm our operating results. Acquisitions are difficult, time consuming, and pose a number of risks, including:

If we do not manage these risks, the acquisitions that we complete may have an adverse effect on our business and financial condition. For instance, if, after the closing of our acquisition of Magma, we are unable to successfully integrate Magma products and technology, we may not be able to achieve the anticipated revenue growth from this transaction. The integration process may involve significant management time and create uncertainty for employees and customers, and delays in the process

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could have a material adverse effect on our revenues, expenses, operating results and financial condition. Additionally, if we determine we cannot use or sell the acquired products or technology, we will be required to write down the associated intangible assets, which would negatively impact our operating results.

Consolidation among our customers, as well as within the industries in which we operate, may negatively impact our operating results.

A number of business combinations, including mergers, asset acquisitions and strategic partnerships, among our customers and in the semiconductor and electronics industries have occurred recently, and more could occur in the future. Consolidation among our customers could lead to fewer customers or the loss of customers, increased customer bargaining power, or reduced customer spending on software and services. Moreover, business combinations within the industries in which we compete may result in stronger competition from companies that are better able to compete as sole source vendors to customers. The loss of customers or reduced customer spending could adversely affect our business and financial condition.

In addition, we and our competitors from time to time acquire business and technologies to complement and expand our respective product offerings. If any of our competitors consolidate or acquire businesses and technologies which we do not offer, they may be able to offer a larger technology portfolio, a larger support and service capability, or lower prices, which could negatively impact our business and operating results.

Changes in accounting principles or standards, or in the way they are applied, could result in unfavorable accounting charges or effects and unexpected financial reporting fluctuations, and could adversely affect our reported operating results.

We prepare our consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). These principles are subject to interpretation by the SEC and various bodies formed to interpret and create appropriate accounting principles and guidance. A change in existing principles or guidance can have a significant effect on our reported results and may retroactively affect previously reported results. Additionally, proposed accounting standards could have a significant impact on our operational processes, revenues and expenses, and could cause unexpected financial reporting fluctuations.

For example, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is currently working together with the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to converge certain accounting principles and facilitate more comparable financial reporting between companies who are required to follow GAAP and those who are required to follow International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). These efforts may result in different accounting principles under GAAP, which may have a material impact on the way in which we report financial results in areas including, but not limited to, revenue recognition, lease accounting, and financial statement presentation. We expect the SEC to make a determination in the near future regarding the incorporation of IFRS into the financial reporting system for U.S. companies. A change in accounting principles from GAAP to IFRS may have a material impact on our financial statements and may retroactively adversely affect previously reported transactions.

Our operating results may fluctuate in the future, which may adversely affect our stock price.

Our operating results are subject to quarterly and annual fluctuations, which may adversely affect our stock price. Our historical results should not be viewed as indicative of our future performance due to these periodic fluctuations. Many factors may cause our revenue or earnings to fluctuate, including:

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These factors, or any other factors or risks discussed herein, could negatively impact our revenue or earnings and cause our stock price to decline.

We operate in highly competitive industries, and if we do not continue to meet our customers’ demand for innovative technology at lower costs, our business and financial condition will be harmed.

We compete against EDA vendors that offer a variety of products and services, such as Cadence Design Systems, Inc., Mentor Graphics Corporation and Magma. We also compete with other EDA vendors, including frequent new entrants to the marketplace, that offer products focused on one or more discrete phases of the IC design process, as well as vendors of IP products and system-level solutions. Moreover, our customers internally develop design tools and capabilities that compete with our products.

The industries in which we operate are highly competitive and the demand for our products and services is dynamic and depends on a number of factors, including demand for our customers’ products, design starts and our customers’ budgetary constraints. Technology in these industries evolves rapidly and is characterized by frequent product introductions and improvements and changes in industry standards and customer requirements. Semiconductor device functionality requirements continually increase while feature widths decrease, substantially increasing the complexity, cost and risk of chip design and manufacturing. At the same time, our customers and potential customers continue to demand an overall lower total cost of design, which can lead to the consolidation of their purchases with one vendor. In order to succeed in this environment, we must successfully meet our customers’ technology requirements and increase the value of our products, while also striving to reduce their overall costs and our own operating costs.

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We compete principally on the basis of technology, product quality and features (including ease-of-use), license or usage terms, post-contract customer support, interoperability among products, and price and payment terms. Specifically, we believe the following competitive factors affect our success:

If we fail to successfully manage these competitive factors, fail to successfully balance the conflicting demands for innovative technology and lower overall costs, or fail to address new competitive forces, our business and financial condition will be adversely affected.

If we fail to protect our proprietary technology our business will be harmed.

Our success depends in part upon protecting our proprietary technology. Our efforts to protect our technology may be costly and unsuccessful. We rely on agreements with customers, employees and others and on intellectual property laws worldwide to protect our proprietary technology. These agreements may be breached, and we may not have adequate remedies for any breach. Additionally, despite our measures to prevent piracy, other parties may attempt to illegally copy or use our products, which could result in lost revenue. Some foreign countries do not currently provide effective legal protection for intellectual property and our ability to prevent the unauthorized use of our products in those countries is therefore limited. Our trade secrets may also otherwise become known or be independently developed by competitors.

We may need to commence litigation or other legal proceedings in order to:

If we do not obtain or maintain appropriate patent, copyright or trade secret protection, for any reason, or cannot fully defend our intellectual property rights in some jurisdictions, our business and operating results would be harmed. In addition, intellectual property litigation is lengthy, expensive and uncertain and legal fees related to such litigation will increase our operating expenses and may reduce our net income.

Unfavorable tax law changes, an unfavorable government review of our tax returns or changes in our geographical earnings mix or forecasts of foreign source income could adversely affect our effective tax rate and our operating results.

Our operations are subject to income and transaction taxes in the United States and in multiple foreign jurisdictions. A change in the tax law in the jurisdictions in which we do business, including an increase in tax rates or an adverse change in the treatment of an item of income or expense, could result in a material increase in our tax expense. Currently, a substantial portion of our revenue is generated from customers located outside the United States, and a substantial portion of our assets,

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including employees, are located outside the United States. United States income taxes and foreign withholding taxes have not been provided on undistributed earnings for certain non-United States subsidiaries to the extent such earnings are considered to be indefinitely reinvested in the operations of those subsidiaries. A number of proposals for broad reform of the corporate tax system in the United States are under evaluation by various legislative and administrative bodies, but it is not possible to determine accurately the overall impact of such proposals on our effective tax rate at this time.

Our tax filings are subject to review or audit by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and state, local and foreign taxing authorities. We exercise judgment in determining our worldwide provision for income taxes and, in the ordinary course of our business, there may be transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. The IRS examinations of our federal tax returns for the years 2000 through 2001 and 2002 through 2004 resulted in significant proposed adjustments which were subsequently settled without a material financial statement impact. In addition, we are currently being audited in jurisdictions outside the United States. Although we believe our tax estimates are reasonable, we can provide no assurance that any final determination in an audit will not be materially different than the treatment reflected in our historical income tax provisions and accruals. An assessment of additional taxes as a result of an audit could adversely affect our income tax provision and net income in the period or periods for which that determination is made.

We have operations both in the United States and in multiple foreign jurisdictions with a wide range of statutory tax rates. Therefore, any changes in our geographical earnings mix in various tax jurisdictions, including those resulting from transfer pricing adjustments, could materially increase our effective tax rate. Furthermore, we maintain deferred tax assets related to federal foreign tax credits and certain state tax credits. Our ability to use these credits is dependent upon having sufficient future foreign source income in the United States, as well as sufficient taxable income in certain states. Changes in our forecasts of future income could result in an adjustment to the deferred tax asset and a related charge to earnings which could materially affect our financial results.

We may have to invest more resources in research and development than anticipated, which could increase our operating expenses and negatively affect our operating results.

We devote substantial resources to research and development. New competitors, technological advances by existing competitors, our acquisitions, our entry into new markets, or other competitive factors may require us to invest significantly greater resources than we anticipate. If we are required to invest significantly greater resources than anticipated without a corresponding increase in revenue, our operating results could decline. Additionally, our periodic research and development expenses may be independent of our level of revenue which could negatively impact our financial results.

The global nature of our operations exposes us to increased risks and compliance obligations which may adversely affect our business.

We derive more than half of our revenue from sales outside the United States, and we expect our orders and revenue to continue to depend on sales to customers outside the United States. In addition, we have expanded our non-U.S. operations significantly in the past several years. This strategy requires us to recruit and retain qualified technical and managerial employees, manage multiple, remote locations performing complex software development projects and ensure intellectual property protection outside of the United States. Our international operations and sales subject us to a number of increased risks, including:

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If any of the foreign economies in which we do business deteriorate or if we fail to effectively manage our global operations, our business and results of operations will be harmed.

In addition, our global operations are subject to numerous U.S. and foreign laws and regulations, including those related to anti-corruption, tax, corporate governance, imports and exports, financial and other disclosures, privacy and labor relations. These laws and regulations are complex and may have differing or conflicting legal standards, making compliance difficult and costly. If we violate these laws and regulations we could be subject to fines, penalties or criminal sanctions, and may be prohibited from conducting business in one or more countries. Although we have implemented policies and procedures to ensure compliance with these laws and regulations, there can be no assurance that our employees, contractors or agents will not violate these laws and regulations. Any violation individually or in the aggregate could have a material adverse effect on our operations and financial condition.

Our financial statements are also affected by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. A weakening U.S. dollar relative to other currencies increases expenses of our foreign subsidiaries when they are translated into U.S. dollars in our consolidated statement of operations. Likewise, a strengthening U.S. dollar relative to other currencies, especially the Japanese yen, reduces revenue of our foreign subsidiaries upon translation and consolidation. Exchange rates are subject to significant and rapid fluctuations, and therefore we cannot predict the prospective impact of exchange rate fluctuations. Although we engage in foreign currency hedging activity, we may be unable to hedge all of our foreign currency risk, which could have a negative impact on our results of operations.

Liquidity requirements in our U.S. operations may require us to raise cash in uncertain capital markets, which could negatively affect our financial condition.

As of October 31, 2011, approximately 77% of our worldwide cash, cash equivalents and short term investments balance was held in subsidiary accounts outside the United States. In addition, typically about half of our operating cash flow is received by our overseas subsidiaries. Should our cash spending needs in the United States rise and exceed our existing U.S. balances, revolving credit facility and future U.S. cash flows, we may be required to incur debt at higher than anticipated interest rates or access other funding sources, which could negatively affect our results of operations, capital structure and/or the market price of our common stock. For example, we expect to partially fund our acquisition of Magma using debt, which would require us to draw on our revolving credit facility or to incur additional debt separate from our credit facility.

From time to time we are subject to claims that our products infringe on third party intellectual property rights.

We are from time to time subject to claims alleging our infringement of third party intellectual property rights, including patent rights. For example, in December 2011, a patent infringement lawsuit was filed against us by Dynetix Design Solutions, Inc., which seeks, among other things, compensatory damages and a permanent injunction. Further information regarding this lawsuit is contained in Part I, Item 3, Legal Proceedings. In addition, under our customer agreements and other license agreements, we agree in many cases to indemnify our customers if our products infringe a third party’s intellectual property rights. We have recently defended some of our customers against claims that their use of one of our products infringes on a patent held by a Japanese electronics company. Although we were successful in that case, there can be no assurances that we will prevail in defending against any current or future claims of infringement. In addition, these types of claims can result in costly and time-

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consuming litigation, require us to enter into royalty arrangements, subject us to damages or injunctions restricting our sale of products, invalidate a patent or family of patents, require us to refund license fees to our customers or to forgo future payments or require us to redesign certain of our products, any one of which could harm our business and operating results.

Product errors or defects could expose us to liability and harm our reputation and we could lose market share.

Software products frequently contain errors or defects, especially when first introduced, when new versions are released or when integrated with technologies developed by acquired companies. Product errors could affect the performance or interoperability of our products, could delay the development or release of new products or new versions of products and could adversely affect market acceptance or perception of our products. In addition, allegations of IC manufacturability issues resulting from use of our IP products could, even if untrue, adversely affect our reputation and our customers’ willingness to license IP products from us. Any such errors or delays in releasing new products or new versions of products or allegations of unsatisfactory performance could cause us to lose customers, increase our service costs, subject us to liability for damages and divert our resources from other tasks, any one of which could materially and adversely affect our business and operating results.

Customer payment defaults or related issues could harm our operating results.

The majority of our revenue backlog consists of customer payment obligations not yet due that are attributable to software we have already delivered. A significant portion of the revenue we recognize in any period comes from backlog and is dependent upon our receipt of cash from customers. We will not achieve expected revenue and cash flow if customers default, declare bankruptcy, or otherwise fail to pay amounts owed. Moreover, existing customers may seek to renegotiate pre-existing contractual commitments due to adverse changes in their own businesses. Our customers’ financial condition, and in turn their ability or willingness to fulfill their contractual and financial obligations, could be adversely affected by current economic conditions. If payment defaults by our customers significantly increase or we experience significant reductions in existing contractual commitments, our operating results would be harmed.

We may be subject to litigation proceedings that could harm our business.

We may be subject to legal claims or regulatory matters involving stockholder, consumer, competition, and other issues on a global basis. Litigation is subject to inherent uncertainties, and unfavorable rulings could occur. An unfavorable ruling could include monetary damages or, in cases for which injunctive relief is sought, an injunction prohibiting us from manufacturing or selling one or more products. If we were to receive an unfavorable ruling on a matter, our business and results of operations could be materially harmed.

In connection with our definitive agreement to acquire Magma, purported Magma stockholders filed shareholder class action lawsuits in December 2011 against Magma, Magma’s directors and Synopsys. Further information regarding these lawsuits is contained in Part I, Item 3, Legal Proceedings.

If we fail to timely recruit and retain senior management and key employees our business may be harmed.

We depend in large part upon the services of key members of our senior management team to drive our future success. If we were to lose the services of any member of our senior management team, our business could be adversely affected.

To be successful, we must also attract and retain key technical, sales and managerial employees, including those who join Synopsys in connection with acquisitions. There are a limited number of qualified EDA and IC design engineers, and competition for these individuals is intense and has

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increased. Our employees are often recruited aggressively by our competitors and our customers. Any failure to recruit and retain key technical, sales and managerial employees could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition. Additionally, efforts to recruit and retain qualified employees could be costly and negatively impact our operating expenses.

We issue stock options and restricted stock units and maintain employee stock purchase plans as a key component of our overall compensation. We face pressure to limit the use of such equity-based compensation due to its dilutive effect on stockholders. In addition, we are required under GAAP to recognize compensation expense in our results from operations for employee share-based equity compensation under our equity grants and our employee stock purchase plan, which has increased the pressure to limit equity-based compensation. These factors may make it more difficult for us to grant attractive equity-based packages in the future, which could adversely impact and limit our ability to attract and retain key employees.

Our business is subject to evolving corporate governance and public disclosure regulations that have increased both our compliance costs and the risk of noncompliance, which could have an adverse effect on our stock price.

We are subject to changing rules and regulations promulgated by a number of governmental and self-regulated organizations, including the SEC, the NASDAQ Stock Market, and the FASB. These rules and regulations continue to evolve in scope and complexity and many new requirements have been created in response to laws enacted by Congress, making compliance more difficult and uncertain. For example, Congress recently passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Our efforts to comply with the Dodd-Frank Act and other new regulations have resulted in, and are likely to continue to result in, increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities.

There are inherent limitations on the effectiveness of our controls.

Regardless of how well designed and operated it is, a control system can provide only reasonable assurance that its objectives will be met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, have been detected. Failure of our control systems to prevent error or fraud could have a material adverse impact on our business.

Our investment portfolio may be impaired by deterioration of the capital markets.

Our cash equivalent and short-term investment portfolio as of October 31, 2011 consists of investment grade municipal bonds, tax-exempt money market mutual funds, taxable money market mutual funds and bank deposits. Our investment portfolio carries both interest rate risk and credit risk. Fixed rate debt securities may have their market value adversely impacted due to a credit downgrade or a rise in interest rates, while floating rate securities may produce less income than expected if interest rates fall or a credit downgrade occurs. As a result of current adverse financial market conditions, including the recent downgrade by Standard and Poor’s (S&P) of the U.S. long-term sovereign credit rating, capital pressures on certain banks, especially in Europe, and the continuing low interest rate environment, some of our financial instruments may become impaired. Our future investment income may fall short of expectations due to changes in interest rates or if the decline in fair value of our publicly traded debt or equity investments is judged to be other-than-temporary. In addition, we may suffer losses in principal if we are forced to sell securities that decline in market value due to changes in the issuer’s credit quality or changes in interest rates.

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Security breaches could compromise sensitive information belonging to us or our customers and could harm our business and reputation.

We store sensitive data, including intellectual property, our proprietary business information and that of our customers, and confidential employee information, in our data centers and on our networks. Despite our security measures, our information technology and infrastructure may be vulnerable to attacks by hackers or breached due to employee error, malfeasance or other disruptions that could result in unauthorized disclosure or loss of sensitive information. Any such security breach could cause us to be non-compliant with applicable laws or regulations, subject us to legal claims or proceedings, disrupt our operations, damage our reputation, and cause a loss of confidence in our products and services, any of which could adversely affect our business.

Catastrophic events may disrupt our business and harm our operating results.

Due to the global nature of our business, our operating results may be negatively impacted by catastrophic events throughout the world. We rely on a global network of infrastructure applications, enterprise applications and technology systems for our development, marketing, operational, support and sales activities. A disruption or failure of these systems in the event of a major earthquake, fire, telecommunications failure, cybersecurity attack, terrorist attack, or other catastrophic event could cause system interruptions, delays in our product development and loss of critical data and could prevent us from fulfilling our customers’ orders. Moreover, our corporate headquarters, a significant portion of our research and development activities, our data centers, and certain other critical business operations are located in California, near major earthquake faults. A catastrophic event that results in the destruction or disruption of our data centers or our critical business or information technology systems would severely affect our ability to conduct normal business operations and, as a result, our operating results would be adversely affected.

None.

Our principal offices are located in four adjacent buildings in Mountain View, California, which together provide approximately 400,000 square feet of available space. This space is leased through February 2015. We also lease approximately 294,000 square feet of additional space in four separate buildings in Sunnyvale, California, with lease expiration dates ranging from October 2012 to September 2019. We own one building in Sunnyvale, California with approximately 120,000 square feet of available space. These buildings in Mountain View and Sunnyvale are used for research and development, sales and support, marketing, and administrative activities.

In addition, in October 2011, we agreed to lease two office buildings to be constructed in Mountain View, California. Once construction is complete, the buildings together will provide approximately 341,000 square feet, though Synopsys and the lessor may agree to enlarge the buildings up to a total size of approximately 440,000 square feet. The lease of such premises begins upon the later of March 1, 2015 or six months after construction is substantially completed. We may terminate the lease prior to such time if certain conditions occur.

We currently lease 21 other offices throughout the United States, primarily for sales and support activities.

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International Facilities

We lease additional space for sales, service and research and development activities in approximately 30 countries throughout the world, including 45,000 square feet in Dublin, Ireland for our international headquarters, as well as significant sites in Yerevan, Armenia, Bangalore, India and Shanghai, China.

We believe that our existing facilities, including both owned and leased properties, are in good condition and suitable for the current conduct of our business.

We are subject to routine legal proceedings, as well as demands, claims and threatened litigation that arise in the normal course of our business. The ultimate outcome of any litigation is uncertain and unfavorable outcomes could have a negative impact on our results of operations and financial condition. Regardless of outcome, litigation can have an adverse impact on Synopsys because of the defense costs, diversion of management resources and other factors.

In connection with our definitive agreement to acquire Magma, on December 5, 2011, December 9, 2011, and December 13, 2011, purported Magma stockholders filed shareholder class action lawsuits against Magma, Magma’s directors and Synopsys in the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara. The lawsuits allege, among other things, that Magma and its directors breached their fiduciary duties to Magma’s stockholders in negotiating and entering into the definitive agreement and by agreeing to sell Magma at an unfair price, pursuant to an unfair process and pursuant to unreasonable terms, and that Synopsys aided and abetted these alleged breaches of fiduciary duties. The lawsuits seek, among other things, to enjoin consummation of the acquisition and monetary damages.

On December 5, 2011, plaintiff Dynetix Design Solutions, Inc. filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Synopsys in federal district court in the Northern District of California. The lawsuit alleges, among other things, that our VCS functional verification tool, and more specifically our VCS multicore technology, infringes Dynetix’s United States Patent No. 6,466,898, and that such infringement is willful. The lawsuit seeks, among other things, compensatory damages and a permanent injunction.

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PART II

Common Stock Market Price

Our common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “SNPS.” The following table sets forth for the periods indicated the high and low sale prices of our common stock, as reported by the NASDAQ Global Select Market.

As of October 31, 2011, we had 411 stockholders of record. To date, we have paid no cash dividends on our capital stock and have no current intention to do so. Our credit facility contains financial covenants requiring us to maintain certain specified levels of cash and cash equivalents. Such provisions could have the effect of preventing us from paying dividends in the future. See Note 5 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for further information regarding our credit facility.

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Performance graph

The following graph compares the 5-year total return to stockholders of our common stock relative to the cumulative total returns of the S&P 500 Index, the S&P Information Technology Index and the NASDAQ Composite Index. The graph assumes that $100 was invested on October 31, 2006 in Synopsys common stock and in each of the indexes and that all dividends were reinvested. No cash dividends were declared on our common stock during such time. The comparisons in the table are required by the SEC and are not intended to forecast or be indicative of possible future performance of our common stock.

The information presented above in the stock performance graph shall not be deemed to be “soliciting material” or to be “filed” with the SEC or subject to Regulation 14A or 14C, except to the extent that we subsequently specifically request that such information be treated as soliciting material or specifically incorporate it by reference into a filing under the Securities Act or Exchange Act.

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Stock Repurchase Program

Our Board of Directors previously approved a stock repurchase program pursuant to which we were authorized to purchase up to $500.0 million of our common stock, and has periodically replenished the stock repurchase program to such amount. Our Board most recently replenished the stock repurchase program up to $500.0 million on May 25, 2011. Funds are available until expended or until the program is suspended by our Chief Financial Officer or Board of Directors. As of October 31, 2011, $312.4 million remained available for future repurchases under the program.

On September 30, 2011, we entered into an accelerated share repurchase agreement (ASR) to repurchase an aggregate of $75.0 million of our common stock. Pursuant to the ASR, we made a prepayment of $75.0 million and received an initial share delivery of 1,710,376 shares of common stock. The initial share delivery was valued at $41.7 million and was recorded as treasury stock in the Consolidated Balance Sheet. The remaining balance of $33.3 million was recorded as an equity forward contract, which is included in “Capital in excess of par value” in the Consolidated Balance Sheet as of October 31, 2011. Under the terms of the ASR, the specific number of shares that we ultimately repurchase will be based on the volume weighted average share price of our common stock during the repurchase period, less a discount.

The table below sets forth information regarding our repurchases of our common stock during the three months ended October 31, 2011.

See Note 8 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for further information regarding our stock repurchase program.

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Overview

The following summary of our financial condition and results of operations is qualified in its entirety by the more complete discussion contained in this Item 7 and by the risk factors set forth in Item 1A of this Annual Report. Please also see the cautionary language at the beginning of Part 1 of this Annual Report regarding forward-looking statements.

Business Summary

Synopsys is a world leader in providing technology solutions used to develop electronics and electronic systems. We supply the electronic design automation (EDA) software that engineers use to design, create prototypes for and test integrated circuits, also known as chips. We also supply software and hardware used to develop the systems that incorporate integrated circuits and the software that runs on those integrated circuits. Our intellectual property (IP) products are pre-designed circuits that engineers use as components of larger chip designs rather than redesigning those circuits themselves. To complement these product offerings, we provide technical services to support our solutions and we help our customers develop chips and electronic systems.

Our customers are generally large semiconductor and electronics manufacturers. Our solutions help them overcome the challenge of developing increasingly advanced electronics products while

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reducing their design and manufacturing costs. While our products are an important part of our customers’ development process, our customers’ research and development budget and spending decisions may be impacted by their business outlook and their willingness to invest in new and increasingly complex chip designs.

Despite recent global economic uncertainty, we have maintained profitability and positive cash flow on an annual basis in recent years. We achieved these results not only because of our solid execution, leading technology and strong customer relationships, but also because of our recurring revenue business model. Under this model, a substantial majority of our customers pay for their licenses over time and we typically recognize this recurring revenue over the life of the contract, which averages approximately three years. Recurring revenue generally represents more than 90% of our total revenue. The revenue we recognize in a particular period generally results from selling efforts in prior periods rather than the current period. We typically enter each quarter with greater than 90% of our revenue for that particular quarter already committed from our customers, providing for stability and predictability of results. Due to our business model, decreases as well as increases in customer spending do not immediately affect our revenues in a significant way.

The semiconductor industry has experienced modest growth to date in 2011 and continued modest growth is currently anticipated for 2012. Our semiconductor customers remain cautious and focused on their costs due to the cyclical nature of the industry, the increasing complexity of product development and macroeconomic factors. The continued instability of global markets may intensify an already challenging environment for our customers to plan investment in research and development.

Nevertheless, our business outlook is positive based on growth forecasts for the semiconductor industry and our strong financials, diligent expense management, and acquisition strategy. Through our recent acquisitions, we have enhanced our technology and expanded our product portfolio and our total addressable market, especially in IP and system-level solutions, which we believe will help drive revenue growth. We expect to explore both organic and inorganic growth opportunities, including acquiring companies or technology that can contribute to the strategic, operational and financial performance of our business. We will continue to monitor worldwide economic growth rates, the considerable volatility of current global markets and other macroeconomic factors and may make adjustments to our business in the event that the semiconductor industry is unable to maintain current spending levels for our solutions. We believe that the combination of our solid financials, leading technology and strong customer relationships will help us successfully execute our strategies.

Fiscal Year End

Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest October 31. Fiscal 2011 ended on October 29, 2011, fiscal 2010 ended on October 30, 2010 and fiscal 2009 ended on October 31, 2009. For presentation purposes in this Form 10-K, we refer to October 31 as the end of a fiscal year. Fiscal 2011, fiscal 2010 and fiscal 2009 were 52-week fiscal years. Fiscal 2012 will be a 53-week fiscal year, which will impact our revenue, expenses and operating results.

Fiscal 2011 Financial Performance Summary

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Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

Our discussion and analysis of our financial results under the heading “Results of Operations” below are based on our audited results of operations, which we have prepared in accordance with GAAP. In preparing these financial statements, we make assumptions, judgments and estimates that can affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses and net income. On an on-going basis, we evaluate our estimates based on historical experience and various other assumptions we believe are reasonable under the circumstances. Our actual results may differ from these estimates. For further information on our significant accounting policies, see Note 2 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.

The accounting policies that most frequently require us to make assumptions, judgments and estimates, and therefore are critical to understanding our results of operations, are:

Revenue Recognition

Software license revenue consists of fees associated with the licensing of our software. Maintenance and service revenue consists of maintenance fees associated with perpetual and term licenses and professional services fees. Hardware revenue consists of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) board-based products.

With respect to software licenses, we utilize three license types:

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For the three software license types, we recognize revenue as follows:

We also enter into arrangements in which portions of revenue are contingent upon the occurrence of uncertain future events, for example, royalty arrangements. We refer to this revenue as “contingent revenue.” Contingent revenue is recognized if and when the applicable event occurs. Such revenue is reported as “time-based revenue” in the consolidated statements of operations. Historically, these arrangements have not been material to our total revenue.

We recognize revenue from hardware sales in full upon shipment if all other revenue recognition criteria are met. Revenue attributable to these hardware sales is reported as “upfront license revenue” in the consolidated statements of operations. Hardware sales have not been material to our total revenue.

We infrequently enter into multiple-element arrangements that contain both software and non-software deliverables such as hardware. On a prospective basis beginning in the first quarter of fiscal 2011, we applied recently issued accounting guidance for revenue arrangements with multiple deliverables for these contracts. The adoption of the guidance did not have a material effect on our consolidated financial statements, is not expected to have a material effect on subsequent periods and did not affect the accounting for contracts which do not contain non-software deliverables. The recent accounting guidance addresses whether to treat individual deliverables or groups of deliverables in a multiple-element arrangement as separate units of accounting and how to allocate the arrangement consideration to the separate units of accounting. The guidance also requires that arrangement consideration be allocated to software deliverables (as a group) and to non-software deliverables (individually) based on relative standalone selling prices and provides guidance for estimating standalone selling prices for purposes of allocating arrangement consideration.

We have determined that the software and non-software deliverables in our contracts are separate units of accounting. Prior to the first quarter of fiscal 2011, all deliverables in our contracts were considered one unit of accounting unless we had vendor-specific objective evidence (VSOE) of fair value for all undelivered elements. We now allocate arrangement consideration to separate units of

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accounting based on estimated standalone selling prices (ESP) because we do not have objective evidence of standalone selling prices. We estimate the standalone selling prices of our separate units of accounting considering both market conditions and our own specific conditions. For hardware deliverables, we determine ESP using gross margin because we have consistent pricing practices and gross margins for these products. Determining the ESP for software deliverables requires significant judgment. We determine ESP for software deliverables after considering customer geographies, market demand and competition at the time of contract negotiation, gross margin objectives, existing portfolio pricing practices, contractually stated prices and prices for similar historical transactions.

Under the recent accounting guidance we recognize revenue for our separate units of accounting when all revenue recognition criteria are met. Revenue allocated to hardware units of accounting is recognized upon delivery when all other revenue recognition criteria are met. Revenue allocated to software units of accounting is recognized according to the methods described above depending on the software license type (TSL, term license or perpetual license).

We recognize revenue from maintenance fees ratably over the maintenance period to the extent cash has been received or fees become due and payable, and recognize revenue from professional services and training fees as such services are performed and accepted by the customer. Revenue attributable to maintenance, professional services and training is reported as “maintenance and service revenue” in the consolidated statements of operations.

We also enter into arrangements to deliver software products, either alone or together with other products or services that require significant modification, or customization of the software. We account for such arrangements using the percentage of completion method as we have the ability to make reasonably dependable estimates that relate to the extent of progress toward completion, contract revenues and costs. We measure the progress towards completion using the labor hours incurred to complete the project. Revenue attributable to these arrangements is reported as maintenance and service revenue in the consolidated statements of operations.

We determine the fair value of each element in multiple element software arrangements that contain only software and software related deliverables based on VSOE. We limit our assessment of VSOE of fair value for each element to the price charged when such element is sold separately. We have analyzed all of the elements included in our multiple-element software arrangements and have determined that we have sufficient VSOE to allocate revenue to the maintenance components of our perpetual and term license products and to professional services. Accordingly, assuming all other revenue recognition criteria are met, we recognize license revenue from perpetual and term licenses upon delivery using the residual method, recognize revenue from maintenance ratably over the maintenance term, and recognize revenue from professional services as services are performed and accepted by the customer. We recognize revenue from TSLs ratably over the term of the license, assuming all other revenue recognition criteria are met, since there is not sufficient VSOE to allocate the TSL fee between license and maintenance services.

We make significant judgments related to revenue recognition. Specifically, in connection with each transaction involving our products, we must evaluate whether: (1) persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, (2) delivery of software or services has occurred, (3) the fee for such software or services is fixed or determinable, and (4) collectability of the full license or service fee is probable. All four of these criteria must be met in order for us to recognize revenue with respect to a particular arrangement. We apply these revenue recognition criteria as follows:

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Valuation of Stock Compensation

Stock compensation expense is measured on the grant date based on the fair value of the award and is recognized as expense over the vesting period in accordance with ASC 718, Stock Compensation. We use the Black-Scholes option-pricing model to determine the fair value of stock options and employee stock purchase plan awards. The Black-Scholes option-pricing model incorporates various subjective assumptions including expected volatility, expected term and risk-free interest rates. We estimate the expected volatility by a combination of implied volatility for publicly traded options of our stock with a term of six months or longer and the historical stock price volatility over the estimated expected term of our stock awards. We determine the expected term of our stock awards based on historical experience. In addition, judgment is required in estimating the forfeiture rate on stock awards. We calculate the expected forfeiture rate based on average historical trends. These input factors are subjective and are determined using management’s judgment. If a difference arises between the assumptions used in determining stock compensation cost and the actual factors which become known over time, we may change the input factors used in determining future stock compensation costs. Any such changes could materially impact our results of operations in the period in which the changes are made and in periods thereafter.

Valuation of Intangible Assets

We evaluate our intangible assets for indications of impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable. Intangible assets consist of

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purchased technology, contract rights intangibles, customer-relationships, trademarks and trade names, covenants not to compete, capitalized software development and other intangibles. Factors that could trigger an impairment review include significant under-performance relative to expected historical or projected future operating results, significant changes in the manner of our use of the acquired assets or the strategy for our overall business or significant negative industry or economic trends. If this evaluation indicates that the value of the intangible asset may be impaired, we make an assessment of the recoverability of the net carrying value of the asset over its remaining useful life. If this assessment indicates that the intangible asset is not recoverable, based on the estimated undiscounted future cash flows of the technology over the remaining useful life, we reduce the net carrying value of the related intangible asset to fair value. Any such impairment charge could be significant and could have a material adverse effect on our reported financial results. We did not record any impairment charges on our intangible assets during fiscal 2011, 2010 or 2009.

Income Taxes

Our tax provisions are calculated using estimates in accordance with ASC 740, Income Taxes. Our estimates and assumptions may differ from the actual results as reflected in our income tax returns and we record the required adjustments when they are identified or resolved.

We recognize deferred tax assets and liabilities for the temporary differences between the book and tax bases of assets and liabilities using enacted tax rates in effect for the year in which we expect the differences to reverse, and for tax loss and credit carryovers. We record a valuation allowance to reduce the deferred tax assets to the amount that is more likely than not to be realized. In evaluating our ability to utilize our deferred tax assets, we consider all available positive and negative evidence, including our past operating results, our forecast of future taxable income on a jurisdiction by jurisdiction basis, as well as feasible and prudent tax planning strategies. These assumptions require significant judgment about the forecasts of future taxable income and are consistent with the plans and estimates we are using to manage the underlying businesses. We believe that the net deferred tax assets of approximately $338.8 million that are recorded on our balance sheet as of October 31, 2011 will ultimately be realized. However, if we determine in the future that it is more likely than not we will not be able to realize a portion or the full amount of deferred tax assets, we would record an adjustment to the deferred tax asset valuation allowance as a charge to earnings in the period such determination is made.

We apply a two-step approach to recognizing and measuring uncertain tax positions. The first step is to evaluate the tax position for recognition by determining whether it is more likely than not that the position will be sustained on audit, including resolution of related appeals or litigation processes, if any. The second step is to measure the tax benefit as the largest amount which is more than 50% likely of being realized upon ultimate settlement.

The calculation of tax liabilities involves the inherent uncertainty associated with the application of complex tax laws. We are also subject to examination by various taxing authorities. We believe we have adequately provided in our financial statements for potential additional taxes. If we ultimately determine that these amounts are not owed, we would reverse the liability and recognize the tax benefit in the period in which we determine that the liability is no longer necessary. If an ultimate tax assessment exceeds our estimate of tax liabilities, we would record an additional charge to earnings.

Results of Operations

Revenue Background

We generate our revenue from the sale of software licenses, maintenance and professional services and to a small extent, hardware products. Under current accounting rules and policies, we recognize revenue from orders we receive for software licenses, services and hardware products at varying times. In most instances, we recognize revenue on a TSL software license order over the

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license term and on a term or perpetual software license order in the quarter in which the license is delivered. Substantially all of our current time-based licenses are TSLs with an average license term of approximately three years. Revenue on contracts requiring significant modification or development is accounted for using the percentage of completion method over the period of the development. Revenue on hardware product orders is generally recognized in full at the time the product is shipped. Contingent revenue is recognized if and when the applicable event occurs.

Revenue on maintenance orders is recognized ratably over the maintenance period (normally one year). Revenue on professional services orders is generally recognized after services are performed and accepted by the customer.

Our revenue in any fiscal quarter is equal to the sum of our time-based license, upfront license, maintenance and professional services and hardware revenue for the period. We derive time-based license revenue in any quarter largely from TSL orders received and delivered in prior quarters and to a smaller extent due to contracts in which revenue is recognized as customer installments become due and payable and from contingent revenue arrangements. We derive upfront license revenue directly from term and perpetual license and hardware product orders mostly booked and shipped during the quarter. We derive maintenance revenue in any quarter largely from maintenance orders received in prior quarters since our maintenance orders generally yield revenue ratably over a term of one year. We also derive professional services revenue primarily from orders received in prior quarters, since we recognize revenue from professional services as those services are delivered and accepted, not when they are booked. Our license revenue is sensitive to the mix of TSLs and perpetual or term licenses delivered during a reporting period. A TSL order typically yields lower current quarter revenue but contributes to revenue in future periods. For example, a $120,000 order for a three-year TSL delivered on the last day of a quarter typically generates no revenue in that quarter, but $10,000 in each of the twelve succeeding quarters. Conversely, perpetual and term licenses with greater than 75% of the license fee due within one year from shipment typically generate current quarter revenue but no future revenue (e.g., a $120,000 order for a perpetual license generates $120,000 in revenue in the quarter the product is delivered, but no future revenue). Additionally, revenue in a particular quarter may also be impacted by perpetual and term licenses in which less than 75% of the license fees and 100% of the maintenance fees are payable within one year from shipment as the related revenue will be recognized as revenue in the period when customer payments become due and payable.

Our customer arrangements are complex, involving hundreds of products and various license rights, and our customers bargain with us over many aspects of these arrangements. For example, they often demand a broader portfolio of solutions, support and services and seek more favorable terms such as expanded license usage, future purchase rights and other unique rights at an overall lower total cost. No single factor typically drives our customers’ buying decisions, and we compete on all fronts to serve customers in a highly competitive EDA market. Customers generally negotiate the total value of the arrangement rather than just unit pricing or volumes.

Total Revenue

Our revenues are subject to fluctuations, primarily due to customer requirements, including payment terms, the timing and value of contract renewals and the sale of products associated with prior-year acquisitions.

The sequential increase in total revenue from fiscal 2009 through fiscal 2011 was due to our overall growth, which was benefited by acquisitions, and the related increase in time-based revenue,

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upfront revenue and professional services revenue primarily driven by the timing and value of contract renewals, sales of products and professional services contracts including contracts assumed from our prior-year acquisitions.

Time-Based License Revenue

The increase in time-based license revenue for fiscal 2011 compared to fiscal 2010 was primarily attributable to increases in TSL license revenue from arrangements booked in prior periods, higher contingent revenue from royalties and product sales from prior-year acquisitions.

The increase in time-based license revenue for fiscal 2010 compared to fiscal 2009 was primarily due to the increase in contingent revenue from royalties received and recognized in fiscal 2010.

Upfront License Revenue

Changes in upfront license revenue are generally attributable to normal fluctuations in customer requirements which can drive the amount of upfront orders and revenue in any particular period.

The increase in upfront license revenue for fiscal 2011 compared to fiscal 2010 was primarily attributable to the increase in sales of our hardware products, perpetual licenses and products associated with prior-year acquisitions.

The increase in upfront license revenue for fiscal 2010 compared to fiscal 2009 was primarily attributable to higher customer demand in hardware and IP perpetual license requirements.

Maintenance and Service Revenue

Changes in maintenance revenue are generally attributable to the timing of renewals and the type of contracts renewed on maintenance contracts. Maintenance revenue was relatively flat for fiscal 2011 compared to fiscal 2010 and decreased in fiscal 2010 compared to fiscal 2009.

Professional services and other revenue increased substantially in fiscal 2011 compared to fiscal 2010, primarily due to professional services contracts assumed from prior acquisitions.

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Professional services and other revenue increased in fiscal 2010 compared to fiscal 2009, primarily due to an increase in recognition of professional services from customer contracts acquired through acquisition offset by a decrease in consulting contracts completed in fiscal 2010.

Cost of Revenue and Operating Expenses

Our expenses are generally impacted by changes in employee related costs including salaries, benefits, stock compensation and variable compensation, changes in amortization and changes in selling and marketing expenses. The increase in our expenses compared to prior fiscal years was primarily due to an increase in employee related costs driven by increased headcount from our acquisitions and due to an increase in commission expense driven by higher shipments. Furthermore, beginning in fiscal 2010, acquisition-related costs such as severance, contract terminations, professional service fees and other directly related costs are expensed in the period in which they are incurred as required by revised accounting standards. Prior to fiscal 2010, such costs were recorded as purchase consideration.

We allocate certain human resource programs, information technology and facility expenses among our functional income statement categories based on headcount within each functional area. Annually, or upon a significant change in headcount (such as a workforce reduction, realignment or acquisition) or other factors, management reviews the allocation methodology and expenses included in the allocation pool. Consequently, fluctuations in these drivers impact the amounts allocated to each functional area.

Foreign currency fluctuations, net of hedging, did not have a significant impact on expenses during fiscal 2011 as compared to fiscal 2010 or fiscal 2010 as compared to fiscal 2009. See Note 5 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for details on our foreign exchange hedging programs.

Cost of Revenue

We divide cost of revenue into three categories: cost of license revenue, cost of maintenance and service revenue, and amortization of intangible assets. We segregate expenses directly associated with consulting and training services from cost of license revenue associated with internal functions

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providing license delivery and post-customer contract support services. We then allocate these group costs between cost of license revenue and cost of maintenance and service revenue based on license and maintenance and service revenue reported.

Cost of license revenue. Cost of license revenue includes costs related to products sold and software licensed, allocated operating costs related to product support and distribution costs, royalties paid to third party vendors, and the amortization of capitalized research and development costs associated with software products which have reached technological feasibility.

Cost of maintenance and service revenue. Cost of maintenance and service revenue includes operating costs related to maintaining the infrastructure necessary to provide our professional consulting services, and costs associated with the delivery of services, such as production and customization services, hotline and on-site support, and documentation of maintenance updates.

Amortization of intangible assets. Intangible assets are amortized to cost of revenue and operating expenses, and include the contract rights associated with certain contracts and core/developed technology, trademarks, trade names, customer relationships, covenants not to compete and other intangibles related to acquisitions.

Cost of revenue as a percentage of total revenue increased in fiscal 2011 compared to fiscal 2010 primarily due to the increase in professional service revenue. The increase in cost of revenue in fiscal 2011 compared to fiscal 2010 was primarily due to an increase in $16.9 million in personnel-related costs as a result of headcount increases from our prior-year acquisitions, an increase of $18.9 million in costs to provide maintenance and professional services, an increase of $2.3 million in hardware and license costs, and an increase of $18.7 million for amortization of intangible assets due to our prior-year acquisitions.

Cost of revenue as a percentage of total revenue was 20% for fiscal years 2010 and 2009. The increase in cost of revenue in fiscal 2010 compared to fiscal 2009 was primarily due to an increase of $3.4 million in intangibles amortization primarily as a result of our recent acquisitions, an increase of $1.1 million in travel related costs, an increase of $1.1 million in other direct costs and an increase of $1.6 million in functionally allocated expenses as previously described.

Operating Expenses

Research and Development

The increase in research and development expense in fiscal 2011 compared to fiscal 2010 was primarily due to an increase of $31.8 million in personnel-related costs and an increase of $11.9 million in functionally allocated expenses as a result of headcount increases from our prior-year acquisitions.

The increase in research and development expense in fiscal 2010 compared to fiscal 2009 was primarily due to an increase of $7.9 million in personnel related costs as a result of headcount increases primarily from our acquisitions, $7.8 million in acquisition-related costs, an increase of $2.4 million in stock compensation expense, an increase of $3.9 million in other research and development expenses, and an increase of $8.6 million in functionally allocated expenses as previously described. This increase was partially offset by a decrease of $1.4 million in depreciation expense.

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Sales and Marketing

Changes in commissions and other variable compensation are generally attributable to the volume of contracts and timing of shipments based on contract requirements.

The increase in sales and marketing expense for fiscal 2011 compared with fiscal 2010 was primarily attributable to an increase of $10.6 million in commissions and other variable compensation, an increase of $9.6 million in other employee-related costs due to an increase in headcount from prior-year acquisitions, and an increase of $2.7 million in travel-related costs.

The increase in sales and marketing expense for fiscal 2010 compared with fiscal 2009 was primarily attributable to an increase of $18.9 million in commissions, other variable compensation and employee related costs, an increase of $3.4 million in acquisition-related costs and an increase of $1.1 million in travel related costs. The increase in commissions and other variable compensation was primarily driven by higher shipments during fiscal 2010 as compared to fiscal 2009. The increase was partially offset by a decrease of $8.0 million of other sales and marketing expense, including consulting, marketing and communications.

General and Administrative

The decrease in general and administrative expense for fiscal 2011 compared with fiscal 2010 was primarily due to a decrease of $13.8 million resulting from higher allocation of expenses to other functional areas because of increased headcount. This decrease was partially offset by an increase of $3.3 million in personnel-related costs, $6.1 million in facility expenses and $2.9 million in other general and administrative expenses primarily as a result of our prior-year acquisitions.

The decrease in general and administrative expense for fiscal 2010 compared with fiscal 2009 was primarily due to a reduction of $3.4 million in bad debt expense based on our review of customer receivables, a decrease of $7.9 million resulting from higher allocation of expenses to other functional areas as previously described, and a decrease in expense due to a $4.5 million restructuring charge related to a facility closure recorded in fiscal 2009. These decreases were offset by an increase of $9.3 million in acquisition-related costs and an increase of $3.0 million in facilities expense primarily due to our acquisitions.

Change in Fair Value of Deferred Compensation

The income or loss arising from the change in fair value of the non-qualified deferred compensation plan obligation is recorded in cost of sales and each functional operating expense, with the offsetting change in the fair value of the related assets recorded in other income (expense), net. These assets are classified as trading securities. The overall net impact to our consolidated statements of operations from the income or loss of our deferred compensation plan obligation and asset is immaterial for all periods presented.

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Acquired In-Process Research and Development

In-process research and development (IPR&D) costs relate to in-process technologies acquired in acquisitions. The value assigned to IPR&D is determined by considering the importance of each project to our overall development plan, estimating costs to develop the IPR&D into commercially viable products, estimating the resulting net cash flows from such projects when completed and discounting the net cash flows back to their present value. The utilized discount rate is our weighted average cost of capital, taking into account the inherent uncertainties in future revenue estimates and the profitability of such technology, the successful development of the IPR&D, its useful life and the uncertainty of technological advances, all of which are unknown at the time of determination.

Effective for fiscal 2010, upon adoption of accounting guidance, ASC 805, Business Combinations, acquired IPR&D were capitalized at fair value as an intangible asset with an indefinite life and is assessed for impairment in subsequent periods. Upon completion of development, the underlying intangible asset is amortized over its estimated useful life and recorded in cost of revenue. Prior to the adoption, IPR&D was expensed upon acquisition if it had no alternative future use. IPR&D expense was $2.2 million for fiscal 2009. IPR&D projects acquired in fiscal 2010 are anticipated to be completed over a period of one to three years from the date of the acquisition. IPR&D projects of $14.1 million were completed during fiscal 2011. See Note 3 and Note 4 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.

Amortization of Intangible Assets

Amortization of intangible assets includes the amortization of the contract rights associated with certain executory contracts and the amortization of core/developed technology, trademarks, trade names, customer relationships, covenants not to compete, and other intangibles related to acquisitions completed in current and prior years. Amortization expense is included in the consolidated statements of operations as follows:

Amortization of capitalized software development costs is not presented in the above table as it is included in cost of license revenue in the consolidated statements of operations.

The increase in amortization of intangible assets for fiscal 2011 as compared to fiscal 2010 was primarily due to a full year’s amortization of intangible assets acquired from our prior-year acquisitions offset by certain other intangible assets acquired in prior years becoming fully amortized.

The increase in amortization of intangible assets for fiscal 2010 as compared to fiscal 2009 was primarily due to addition of intangible assets from our acquisitions in fiscal 2010 offset by certain other intangible assets acquired in prior years becoming fully amortized.

See Note 4 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for a schedule of future amortization amounts which information is included herein.

Impairment of Intangible Assets. We did not record any impairment charges to the intangible assets during fiscal 2011, 2010, or 2009.

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Other Income (Expense), Net

The net decrease in other income (expense) in fiscal 2011 as compared to fiscal 2010 was primarily due to a decrease in gain on assets related to our deferred compensation plan, a decrease in gains on sale of investments and lower interest rates. This decrease was partially offset by foreign exchange fluctuations.

The net decrease in other income (expense) in fiscal 2010 as compared to fiscal 2009 was primarily due to foreign exchange fluctuations, and lower interest rates. This decrease was partially offset by an increase from gains on sales of investments.

Income Taxes

Our effective tax rates for fiscal 2011 and 2010 include one-time tax benefits of settlements with the IRS of $32.8 million (for fiscal years 2006 through 2009) in fiscal 2011 and $94.3 million (for fiscal years 2002 through 2004) in fiscal 2010. The effect of this change was partly offset by the benefit of the extension of the federal research credit in fiscal 2011, which resulted in an additional tax credit for ten months of fiscal 2010 as well as a full year credit for fiscal 2011, compared to only two months in fiscal 2010. Without the impact of the IRS settlements, the effective tax rate for fiscal 2011 and 2010 would have been 13.9% and 28.2%, respectively. For further discussion of the provision for income taxes and the IRS settlement, see Note 10 of the Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Our sources of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments are funds generated from our business operations and funds that may be drawn down under our credit facility.

As of October 31, 2011, we held an aggregate of $230.0 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments in the United States and an aggregate of $774.1 million in our foreign subsidiaries. Funds held in our foreign subsidiaries are generated from revenue outside North America. At present, such foreign funds are considered to be indefinitely reinvested in foreign countries to the extent of indefinitely reinvested foreign earnings. However, in the event funds from foreign operations are needed to fund cash needs in the United States and if U.S. taxes have not already been previously accrued, we would be required to accrue and pay additional U.S. taxes in order to repatriate these funds.

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The following sections discuss changes in our balance sheet and cash flows, and other commitments on our liquidity and capital resources during fiscal 2011.

Cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments

We generated strong cash flows from operating activities during fiscal 2011. Our cash generated from operating activities was $440.3 million in fiscal 2011.

Other cash activities were (1) share repurchases of $401.8 million and an equity forward contract purchased of $33.3 million partially offset by proceeds from issuances of common stock of $162.2 million, (2) purchases of property and equipment of $57.3 million, (3) payments for acquisitions, net of cash acquired, of $41.0 million, and (4) net proceeds from sales and purchases of short-term investments of $9.6 million.

Cash flows