> Agilent EEsof EDA, who claims to be the #5 EDA Vendor, no longer exists,
> at least not as a separate division within Agilent Technologies.
>
> There were massive layoffs at the Westlake Village, CA R&D center (former
> EEsof facility) as well as layoffs in Santa Rosa and elimination of many
> PDK development jobs in India.  In total there were approx 67 layoffs, out
> of roughly 200 people in the former "division".  Job cuts included all
> technical support, marketing, consulting services, and business admin in
> Westlake Village.
>
> What's left of EEsof has collapsed into the Component Test Group.
>
>       - from http://www.deepchip.com/wiretap/090519.html


From: Jim McGillivary <jim_mcgillivary=user domain=agilent not mom>

Hi John,

I'm the VP and GM of Agilent's EEsof business, and I must say that the
rumors of our death are greatly exaggerated.  We are very much alive and
well.  As you know, Agilent recently went through some restructuring
and this included my EEsof business.  Most of our layoffs were to
consolidate certain jobs to our main Agilent sites.  Many of our positions
were replaced by existing Agilent employees from other divisions.  Contrary
to what your writer implied, Westlake Village is still a critical EEsof R&D
site.  The positions that we eliminated in Westlake could be done more
efficiently in our main Santa Rosa site.

In our R&D programs, we actually increased the total number of R&D engineers
working on our products.  In fact, in the key area of PDK development, we've
tripled our investments in the last 3 months.  We continue to aggressively
develop industry-leading breakthroughs such as X-parameters (RF behavioral
models), and innovations such as fully-integrated 3D-EM solutions, complete
design flows, and best-in-class foundry kits.  All our products are fully
staffed, supported and have robust roadmaps for future enhancements.

Another sign of strong Agilent support for EEsof has been the acquisitions we
have done in the past couple of years.  Agilent invested significant capital
in my business to enable us to complete the RF/High frequency design flow.
This strategy has been very successful as we have been gaining significant
market share.  Customers tell us that they are frustrated with a fragmented
design flow and are enthusiastic about our unique integration of EM tools
(planar, and 3DEM).  We are also seeing very strong growth from digital
designers who are designing serial interfaces with data rates above 5GB/sec.
Their legacy Signal Integrity tools just don't work at these frequencies.
It's a microwave problem; something our products can handle with ease.

Also, John, that comment about "dissolving into Component Test Group" is flat
out wrong.  We remain a separate entity within Agilent, we are financially
strong, and produced Q2 results that were among the best in the company and
EDA industry.

While the industry struggles through this downturn, Agilent EEsof EDA is
strong and well positioned in the emerging recovery.

    - Jim McGillivary
      Agilent EEsof EDA                          Santa Rosa, CA