SAN FRANCISCO—A cyber feud of sorts has emerged between an executive at the SEMI trade group and market research firm VLSI Research Inc.
In a blog posting, Tom Morrow, SEMI's vice president of global expositions and marketing, directed some scathing criticism at an industry analyst, whom the blog does not indentify. Industry sources say the analyst in question is clearly VLSI Research CEO G. Dan Hutcheson.
Late Friday (July 10) VLSI Research issued a response to the blog, suggesting it was immature.
Morrow's blog is not posted on SEMI's site but Blogspot, a Google-owned site that provides a platform for blogs. Reached by EE Times via email, Morrow declined to comment further. Hutcheson did not immediately responded to requests for comment on the posting.
Sources say Morrow posted his blog in response to a recent item in The Chip Insider, VLSI Research's newsletter about the semiconductor equipment industry. In the July 6 issue, Hutcheson and Risto Puhakka, president of VLSI Research, noted that many executives are not attending Semicon West this year and said many consider the show to be irrelevant.
In the issue, Hutcheson questioned the value of money spent by SEMI members on Semicon West and said that SEMI has a business problem. Puhakka suggested that there will be fundamental changes to the tradeshow beginning next year.
Morrow's retort, which did not specifically mention Hutcheson or VLSI Research, is strongly worded. It suggests that Hutcheson's criticism of SEMI and Semicon West arose because SEMI did not offer Hutcheson a high-profile speaking opportunity at the show. It takes issue with several of the items mentioned in The Chip Insider.
The jabs landed by Morrow surprised many people because Hutcheson is regarded as the most prominent semiconductor capital equipment analyst and has seemed to have a strong relationship with SEMI.
In the latest Chip Insider released Friday, VLSI Research responded to the blog entry by Morrow. A note, jointly bylined by Hutcheson and Puhakka, said the article about Semicon West "really rattled some nerves" and apologized to those who found their comments threatening. They said their comments about the value of Semicon West were based on numerous discussions with CEOs and marketing executives about the value of different marketing venues, including Semicon West.
Hutcheson and Puhakka denied that they wrote the article because they weren't asked to speak at Semicon West. They said they declined two invitations from SEMI to speak at the event because they don't want to take away from clients' marketing efforts.
Responding to a reader question about Morrow's blog, Puhakka defended Hutcheson's work ethic and described Morrow's blog as "not a mature response to last week's Chip Insider. He described Hutcheson as a longstanding member of SEMI who has contributed hundreds of hours of volunteer work to the organization and suggested a phone call to discuss the Semicon West article would have been more effective than the blog posting.
A spokesperson for SEMI noted that Morrow's blog was a personal blog and said the posting doesn't reflect the organization's position. The spokesperson called the blog entry "tongue and cheek" and said it was Morrow's personal opinion.
Puhakka declined to comment on the issue.
Semicon West, the annual semiconductor capital equipment industry tradeshow, is to be held here next week.
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