Sethi leaves TechCrunch UK after dispute with Arrington

Intrigue and confusion over at TechCrunch UK following what appears to be a dispute between Sam Sethi and TechCrunch head honcho Michael Arrington, with Sethi losing out and moving on.

In his (now removed) final post Sethi wrote:

"Following yesterday’s post about Le Web and Loic’s retort. It seems Mike Arrington has disagreed with my post and opinion believing my actions to be vindictive towards Loic. What was said between Mike and I will remain confidential but suffice to say I can no longer remain with TechCrunch UK & Ireland.

"It is a very sad after all the work that has gone into TechCrunch UK and Ireland. I wish all of the UK and Irish entrepreneurs well. I will be personally blogging back at www.vecosys.com and looking for something new to keep me busy. Bye."

Sethi had posted a roundup of Le Web 3, which many in the blogosphere have been complaining about today after the Paris-based event – previously called Les Blogs – morphed into a kind of political sideshow, with appearances from Shimon Peres, Francois Bayrou and Niklas Sarkozy.

Some attendees, who had shelled out EU600 to attend Le Web 3, were suitably miffed at being lectured about the internet by politicians who don’t understand the internet.

Nevertheless, TechCrunch France was one of the sponsors of the event and organiser Loic Le Meur clearly felt aggrieved, judging by a comment left for Sethi on TechCrunch UK: “There is no word to qualify you and this post. You are just an asshole.”

We’ve emailed Michael Arrington for some clarification but there’s no word as yet…

Update: Mike Butcher has posted an open letter that explains his position.

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