By Ed Sperling

Money is flowing again. Sometimes into companies, sometimes out of companies. But at least it’s moving.

Synopsys bought VaST Systems for an unknown price, but it doesn’t appear it was a vast amount of money. Synopsys said it didn’t materially affect its numbers, which means it fell well below the radar screen. Apparently it’s tough to break into the software prototyping market without serious integration with other tools in a flow. This builds on Synopsys’ acquisition of Virtio in 2006.

Virage Logic’s revenue for Q1 of its fiscal 2010 was $21.7 million, up from $11.3 million in the same quarter in 2009 and $13.1 million in Q4. The company reported a loss for the quarter of $2.2 million, but that loss reflects the costs of recent acquisitions. Minus those charges, profit would have been $900,000. More significant for Virage, royalty income for Q1 was $4.7 million vs. $2.8 million in the same period in 2009, a sign that companies are building chips again and licensing IP to get to market more quickly.

Actel posted a profit in Q4 2009 vs. the same period in 2008, despite a drop in overall revenue. Net income was $1 million in the quarter, vs. a loss of $12.5 million during the same period in 2008. Revenue was $49.7 million in Q4 2009, down 5.8% from 2008, but up 5.2% from Q3 2009. For the full fiscal year revenue was $190.6 million, down 12.7% from fiscal 2008. The company expects revenues in the current quarter to rise 2% to 6% compared to Q4.

Actel also announced that its president and CEO, John East, would step down once a replacement is found. East, who is 65 years old, will continue serve as a consultant through August 2011, after which he will retire. He has led the company for the past two decades.

Things were modestly upbeat at Cadence for the first time in months. The company reported financial results for Q4 and fiscal year 2009. In Q4 revenues slipped to $220 million vs. $227 million in 2008, but net income was $2 million vs. a loss of $1.63 billion (!) in the same period in 2008. It must be nice to write in black ink again. The Q4 2008 loss included a $1.36 billion “impairment charge.” For the 12 months, revenue was $853 in 2009 vs. $1.04 billion in 2008. Net loss for 2009 was $150 million vs. $1.86 billion including that one-time charge (or $500 million without that charge).

The bottom line—the worst is over. Traffic on Silicon Valley roads is up, and attendance at DesignCon this week was strong. Next comes the jobs.