>    The rumors of my demise are NOT exaggerated.
> 
>    My last day at EE Times will be June 29, and since I had already
>    arranged a week of vacation starting June 18, I effectively have
>    about 1 week left.
>
>     - Richard Goering from http://www.deepchip.com/wiretap/070614.html


From: Gloria Nichols <gloria=user domain=launchm pop tom>

Hi John,

EE Times, our top-read industry publication just cut their top EDA editor?

Every EDA vendor I have worked with has coveted having Richard Goering cover
their product announcements; his questions are bang on, often unanticipated,
and his work is superlative.  The PR community admires the way no one can
pull anything over on him, e.g. repackaging an old product or claiming to be
first when another vendor sold something similar years before.  Richard
somehow has all this information at his fingertips before each interview.

I am trying to figure out how we are going communicate EDA's "value" to the
outside world when our independent, credible sources are shrinking.

    - Gloria Nichols
      Launch Marketing                           Half Moon Bay, CA

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From: Erach Desai <erach=user domain=desaisive hot mom>

Hey John,

EE Times axes Richard Goering.  I was absolutely stunned.  EE Times has been
to electronics, what the Wall Street Journal is to business and finance.

A few years ago, I was living the good, high life at CSFB.  The bubble was
nearing its peak and EDA and design infrastructure was hot: Numerical,
Synplicity, Verisity, and Simplex had gone IPO.  We (CSFB) had the mandates
for lead-managing PDF Solutions and Magma.  Along comes Nassda, also wanting
to go public.   We (CSFB) pitched and won the lead-manager slot.

Over the weekend, things went haywire: the powers-that-be at CSFB were
cajoled/threatened/coerced by the powers-that-be at Synopsys (or their CFO,
who seemed to wield such power) that the Synopsys-Nassda lawsuit (already
in progress) would be a huge liability.  After giving our word to Nassda,
we backed out.  As usual, the analyst (me) had no say.  I was livid!  We had
scoped the legal risk, and knew that Nassda needed to get big name lawyers
with big fees to fight the big bully.

In comes Goering.  Nassda eventually filed to go IPO, with another bank as
lead-manager.  Upon the filing, Richard started making the calls about the
proposed IPO and the legal issues.  When Richard called me, my impression
was that I was in the clear to speak with the media, since we (CSFB) were
not on the deal.

Naturally, I unleashed a full volley of fury about the injustice of the
lawsuit, in a style that can only be described as NOT politically correct.
When I emailed the internal compliance folks about our conversation, I was
quickly informed that since I had been previously "brought over the Chinese
wall" it was a no-no to comment publicly on the deal (even though we were
not on it).  I had to call Richard back and explain that I was retracting
my comments (pretty, please!).  Mercifully, he respected my personal appeal
and I was not quoted in the story that followed.

Bear in mind, Richard Goering had NO obligation to accept my retraction.  He
likely had his hands on a very juicy story with strong commercial appeal.
However, being the person he is, he avoided some messy problems for me.

I share Gloria's sentiment that a credible and independent voice on the
technology and business of EDA has been sidelined.  There does seem to be a
trend, with Gartner nixing their EDA team last fall.  We may agree/disagree
with Gary Smith's opinions, but he was the leading independent market
analyst out there.  I viewed that move by Gartner management as a commercial
decision, basically triggered by the Big Three deliberately mounting a
financial jihad.  If you don't like the messenger, and you are the big fish
in the pond, then shoot the messenger -- boy, that sounds soooo familiar!

The pendulum of media power has now swung fully in the direction of the big
EDA corporations.  This period will bring us regurgitated press releases
cut-and-pasted as the "news", exactly as the big EDA companies want it to
be presented, and without any of those pesky independent journalists messing
up their marketing message.  Say goodbye to any real EDA news for a while.

    - Erach Desai
      DESAIsive Technology Research, Inc.        Hingham, MA