NEW YORK, Jan 17, 2002 (Reuters) - Willamette Industries Inc. abruptly ended its earnings conference call on Thursday after an irate investor queried its chief executive about why the paper and timber company continues to reject rival Weyerhaeuser Co.'s $6.1 billion hostile takeover bid. Willamette CEO Duane McDougall, before taking questions, reminded participants that the purpose of the conference call was to discuss quarterly financial results, not the company's year-long defense against Weyerhaeuser or continuing talks with Georgia-Pacific Corp. to buy its building products unit. One investor, however, couldn't resist the temptation. "You say the board is committed to shareholder value, but what rights do we have as owners of the company other than paying salaries?" asked the investor, who identified himself as Frank Cilluffo of Portland, New Hampshire-based investment firm Cilluffo Associates. McDougall replied that the company's board had not met since Weyerhaeuser announced last week that 64 percent of Willamette shares had been tendered in favor of the $55-a-share offer. "It's a piece of information that they'll have to take into consideration," he said. McDougall declined to comment on Cilluffo's follow-up questions regarding the board's personal liabilities. "Operator, I think that'll do it for today," he said, ending the call after barely 30 minutes. Last quarter, the company's conference call lasted about 40 minutes. "I think that Duane (McDougall) probably went further than he really meant to go there," said Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown analyst Mark Wilde. A company spokeswoman told Reuters after the call that McDougall was not speaking from notes and that his comments speak for themselves. She also said she had not heard of Cilluffo prior to the call. "I was satisfied that he said that the board has new information and hopefully they will do the right thing." Cilluffo declined to say how much Willamette stock he holds, but an SEC filing from last March did not list him as an investor with more than 5 percent of total shares outstanding. Willamette's fourth-quarter call is the latest example of company conference calls gone haywire. Last April, for example, Jeff Skilling, then CEO of energy trading firm Enron Corp. called a fund manager an "asshole" during a conference call to discuss first-quarter results. Skilling hurled the insult after an exchange with Richard Grubman, managing director of Highfields Capital Management, who, in an eerie foreshadowing of the company's recent downfall, asked to see Enron's balance sheet and was told it would not be available until its inclusion in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing later in the month. While company conference calls can turn downright nasty, they can also show the more human side of their participants. On Wednesday, just after State Street CEO David Spina finished telling analysts about his firm's strong fourth-quarter results and the call operator began collecting analysts questions, a man was heard saying, "Breathe, just breathe." Whether this was to encourage a jubilant Spina or an exhausted analyst could not be determined.