Moving on
Cisco has hired Mark Papermaster who left Apple seemingly out-of-the-blue, leading to rumours he had been ousted from his role as head honcho of the iPhone and iPod division in August.
Papermaster has joined Cisco as VP of its silicon switching technology group, according to Reuters. The move seems to be a relatively straight forward one for Papermaster whose previous appointment was been surrounded by controversy.
His arrival at Apple was complicated as the hardware giant du jour had reportedly poached him from IBM where he was VP of microprocessor technology and worked for some 25 years. This sparked a lawsuit from IBM who alleged Papermaster was breaching his non-compete agreement as he had reportedly promised he would not work for a competitor for at least one year.
While a federal court originally decided he couldn't take his new role, the lawsuit was resolved and Papermaster started work at Apple back in the spring of 2009.
He then spent just under 2 years at Apple before leaving rather suddenly and not confirming whether the decision was his own or whether he was asked to go. Some commentators believe Papermaster took the fall or was possibly made a scapegoat for Apple's iPhone 4 ‘antennagate' PR nightmare.
However, at the time, The WSJ reported that Papermaster had ‘fallen out' with Steve Jobs and consequently ‘lost the confidence' of Apple's CEO a few months before his departure, with Jobs apparently sceptical of Papermaster's ability to fit in with Apple's corporate culture.
In an interesting twist, Apple Insider said court papers showed Papermaster was not Apple's first choice for the iPhone and iPod role and was put forward for the job by Apple VP Mark Mansfield as a ‘long shot'. Papermaster will no doubt be hoping his latest job is less tempestuous.
