March 5 (Reuters) - Cadence Design Systems ( CDNS ) will

buy BETA CAE Systems International AG, which makes software for

analyzing car and jet engine designs, for $1.24 billion in cash

and stock, Cadence said on Tuesday.

Cadence will pay about $744 million in cash and the rest in

stock. The San Jose, California-based company said it will take

on debt to pay for the deal but pay the debt down with cash

generated from operations.

Cadence's shares were down 1.5% premarket, showing little

reaction to the news.

Cadence is one of the largest makers of software used in

designing computer chips, helping chipmakers decide where to

place billions of transistors to form complex circuits. But over

the past six years, it has been moving into design software for

the larger physical systems from circuit boards to airplanes.

Last month, the company announced a supercomputer designed to

help simulate how air flows around jet engines, among other

uses.

The BETA CAE deal continues that trend. Its software is

widely used to analyze designs in automotive and aerospace

industries, with customers such as Honda Motor Co ( HMC ),

General Motors ( GM ) and Lockheed Martin ( LMT ).

The Cadence deal announced Tuesday comes after the firm's

largest rival, Synopsys, said it will spend $35 billion to buy

Ansys, another maker of physical analysis software.

The BETA CAE deal is expected to close in the second quarter

of the year and Cadence expects BETA CAE to contribute about $40

million to its 2024 revenue, Cadence said in a statement.