The short answer to the question posed in the title is: Nobody knows. It all depends on Cadence. It could be good, or it could be bad. So what’s my point?
FMF has always, since 1995, provided models as standards compliant source code. One of the advantages to our users is that no matter what happens to FMF, you can keep using our models forever. There are no run time licenses. There is no compiled code to be recompiled with the next OS upgrade. There is nothing tying a model to a particular release of a simulator. Nothing provides the long term security of having the source code.
Now you won’t (and we haven’t) get rich with this business model. FMF was started by engineers trying to solve the model scarcity problem. We all had day jobs that involved designing electronic systems and we were trying to make those jobs easier. We were also working in an industry that had 20-year product life cycles. Stability was a requirement. I realize that is not true in every industry.
There are other advantages to open source models. I talk about them else elsewhere on these pages. For now, we are reminded that long term usability is one important advantage.