On May 19, 2011, National Instruments (NI) signed a definitive merger agreement to acquire all of the shares of AWR. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the next 30-60 days. The existing AWR management team will continue to lead the company in their current roles and AWR will operate as a wholly owned independent NI subsidiary developing and selling RF design software.

• Read the official press release
• Read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

As both firms have a strong employee culture that values open discussion and dialogue, this special e-newsletter is bringing this dialogue to you- our customers, partners and prospects. In this issue, Dane Collins, CEO of AWR and Dr. Truchard, CEO of NI, share their personal perspectives on the new alignment of these two exceptional firms.

• The entire AWR sales channel remains in place as-is and all customers will continue to work with the AWR representatives and resellers they know and trust.
• All of our support channels (offices, phone, email, etc.) remain in place and all the people helping you yesterday will continue to help you tomorrow.
• Some of you may however see quick expansion into yet-to-be-served AWR territories as NI’s vast network of offices allows AWR to deploy support organizations in regions simply not possible prior.

I’m pleased to be reaching out to AWR’s customers so quickly after the news of our merger has been released. I’d like you all to know that NI is a worldwide test equipment leader, who like AWR, seeks to provide differentiated solutions by focusing on customer success. Complementing AWR’s design success with NI’s excellence in integrated measurement and test capabilities, results in tremendous value to our mutual customers and prospects.

AWR brings strong RF talent and technologies that expand the NI software and hardware platform into RF system design. AWR complements NI’s existing investment in RF and microwave instrumentation and helps NI effectively execute on its RF mission to accelerate the deployment of RF and wireless technologies and empower engineers around the globe to design high-quality RF systems.
 
The two firms share several areas of synergy already that we want to grow:

• Synergy between RF Design and RF Test.
  NI and AWR product portfolios are highly complementary, with NI having leading hardware and software tools for the prototyping and test of RF systems, and AWR having very capable software design tools that are early in the RF circuit and system design cycle. By increasing the level of integration between AWR design tools and NI test software and hardware, NI and AWR together can significantly improve customer productivity through increased connectivity between the upfront design cycles and prototype/production test functions.
• Academic Synergy.
  NI and AWR both recognize the importance to support academic and university teaching and research. NI will augment its current academic and university RF and communications offerings to encompass AWR software tools and technologies to expand the adoption of AWR products into academia. Educators and students will benefit from the integration of the combined tools for the rapid design and prototyping of RF systems.