Briggs AnalyticsShutting down a chip or circuit board design company? Your operational data may still have value.
Closing or winding down? You get priority. Buyers pay the most while the company's email, files and accounts are still live, so we look at closing companies first.
What's going on with the business?
Free · five quick questions · about a minute · no files
In this article
What is worth the mostExport this firstHow long each system keeps your recordsWhy the timing mattersThe record a buyer asks for firstWhat stops chip / pcb design dealsThe checklistWhat is worth the most when a chip or circuit board design company closes
A hardware design shop's records show how each board was designed, checked, rejected, revised and released, with the fab's feedback in between. Buyers name engineering revision history among the hardest records to find. Export control and customer ownership decide what can be in scope.
Two things move the number more than anything else: how many years the systems hold, and how many systems recorded the same work. A 35-person chip or circuit board design company with 12 years of records sits around $220,000 to $520,000 on the Briggs Analytics estimate; the same company with only 6 years of records sits around $110,000 to $260,000. Those are our estimates, not buyer quotes. A closing company is priced by the buyer after review.
Export this first
The design tool vault with every revision and ECO, then the fab and assembly email. A board that went through DRC failure, re-spin and yield report is the loop.
| System | What a buyer sees in it |
|---|---|
| Design tools (Altium, KiCad, Cadence, OrCAD, Mentor) | every schematic and layout revision, design-rule checks, BOM changes, Gerber releases |
| Version control (Git, SVN, Altium 365) | the commit history behind each board spin |
| Jira or a change-order system | ECOs, bring-up bugs, firmware tickets, test failures |
| Outlook or Gmail and the fab and assembly email | DFM feedback, quotes, yield reports, the back-and-forth with the fab |
| Firmware repositories | the code that runs on the board, with history |
How long each system keeps your records after you stop paying
This is the part most shut-down checklists skip. Every vendor has its own clock, and some start it the day the card fails.
| System | The window |
|---|---|
| Version control (Git, SVN, Altium 365) | Deleted repositories can be restored for a limited time, then they are gone for good. Export with the full history (a mirror clone), not a zip of the current files. |
| Jira or a change-order system | Atlassian deactivates a cancelled site and deletes it on a schedule it sets. Export the issues with comments and attachments while an admin login still works. |
| Outlook or Gmail and the fab and assembly email | Microsoft 365 keeps a cancelled subscription's data for up to 90 days, then deletes it. (Microsoft 365 cancellation guide) |
| Firmware repositories | Deleted repositories can be restored for a limited time, then they are gone for good. Export with the full history (a mirror clone), not a zip of the current files. |
Why the timing matters for a chip or circuit board design company
Design tool licenses are expensive and cancelled first, and vault access can end with the seat. The fab correspondence lives in individual mailboxes that go when the engineers leave.
The record a buyer will ask to see first
Buyers pay most for a connected trail: the request, the work, the outcome, in the same systems. For a chip or circuit board design company, that looks like this:
- Schematic, layout, design-rule check, ECO, re-spin, bring-up, test failure, firmware fix, release. Every spin is a recorded decision.
- A fab sends DFM feedback. The layout changes. The yield report comes back. That loop, repeated for years, is the record.
The thing that stops chip / pcb design deals
Export control comes first. Any design that touches ITAR or EAR stays out, and your counsel decides which. Customer-owned files stay out. What is left, your own revisions and the fab correspondence, is what buyers describe wanting. Shops whose work is mostly customer-owned under NDA have less to license. Shops with their own product lines or reference designs have the most.
The shut-down checklist for a chip or circuit board design company
- Do not cancel anything yet. Vendors delete closed accounts on their own schedules. Hold cancellations until the export is done.
- List the systems. For a chip or circuit board design company that usually means Design tools (Altium, KiCad, Cadence, OrCAD, Mentor), Version control (Git, SVN, Altium 365), Jira or a change-order system. Write down how many years each holds and who still has admin access.
- Check the rights. Export control comes first. Any design that touches ITAR or EAR stays out, and your counsel decides which. Customer-owned files stay out. What is left, your own revisions and the fab correspondence, is what buyers describe wanting.
- Take the two-minute estimate, then get our review. It asks about people, years and systems. You don't send any files to find out. If it looks real, we review the company and tell you what we think it could be worth and what the next step would be.
- Export, get paid, then cancel. Do the export while the admin accounts still work. Keep the subscriptions you need until the export is confirmed.
See what your company's operational data could be worth.
Free · five quick questions · about a minute · no files
See what my data is worth →Related
In short
- Closing a chip or circuit board design company? A hardware design shop's records show how each board was designed, checked, rejected, revised and released, with the fab's feedback in between.
- Export first: Design tools (Altium, KiCad, Cadence, OrCAD, Mentor). Do not cancel subscriptions until the export is done.
- Briggs Analytics estimate for a 35-person chip / pcb design business with 12 years of records: $220,000 to $520,000. Not an offer.
- Briggs Analytics doesn't charge business owners.
Questions owners ask.
Do the Gerber files or the schematics get shared?
Only what the agreement you approve says. Buyers describe wanting the revision history and the reasoning around it. Final production files can be excluded.
Our designs are customer-owned. Anything left?
Your own process is still yours: the review comments, the DRC failures, the ECO history and the fab correspondence, with the customer identity removed. Ask your counsel which contracts allow it.
We are closing the chip / pcb design business in two weeks. Is that enough time?
It can be, if the export happens this week. The hard deadline is each vendor's deletion clock, not the buyer's. Start with Design tools (Altium, KiCad, Cadence, OrCAD, Mentor).
Does licensing get in the way of winding down properly?
It does not have to. A license gives a buyer a copy, and your originals stay with you for whatever retention rules apply to your industry. Ask your lawyer how those rules apply to you.
Closing or winding down? You get priority. Buyers pay the most while the company's email, files and accounts are still live, so we look at closing companies first.
Ready to see your number? What's going on with the business?
Free · five quick questions · about a minute · no files
