IBM Legally Bans Apple from Employing Papermaster
We are not glad to report that the bad news from Apple keep on coming. At the beginning of the month we were reporting that Tony Fadell, the mastermind behind the immensely popular iPod is leaving the position he held with Apple, and so is his wife. His successor should have been Mark Papermaster, but IBM has resorted to legal action in order to prevent this from happening. Until the curt ruled by Judge Kenneth Karas will come to a decision on the matter, Papermaster has been ordered to stop his collaboration with Apple.
To put it simply, IBM is not willing to let Mark Papermaster just walk out on them and take the job of Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering with Apple – not since for the past two years Papermaster has been part of the elite, 300 large Integrated and Values Team (I&VT for short) and has been hard at work on IBM’s blade severs. Why is IBM concerned about this? The answer is simple: these servers are capable of more efficiently using processor power and IBM does not want Papermaster’s knowledge to be used by Apple.
Papermaster joined the Apple team on the 4th of November and immediately assumed the responsibilities associated to his position – which is to say that he got straight to work without delay. He will now have to put things on hold because the court order issued by Judge Kenneth Karas states Papermaster should “immediately cease his employment with Apple Inc. until further Order of this Court.” It is yet unclear why the judge has requested this of Papermaster, but Karas has stated that he will make a formal statement in the near future, and hopefully let us in on his reasoning.
It goes without saying that 26-years old Papermaster is not too happy about the situation, especially since IBM did not disapprove of him handing in his two-week notice. The other strange thing is that IBM and Apple are not direct competitors – there was no sign that his leaving the IBM team would lead to a lawsuit.
To put it simply, IBM is not willing to let Mark Papermaster just walk out on them and take the job of Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering with Apple – not since for the past two years Papermaster has been part of the elite, 300 large Integrated and Values Team (I&VT for short) and has been hard at work on IBM’s blade severs. Why is IBM concerned about this? The answer is simple: these servers are capable of more efficiently using processor power and IBM does not want Papermaster’s knowledge to be used by Apple.
Papermaster joined the Apple team on the 4th of November and immediately assumed the responsibilities associated to his position – which is to say that he got straight to work without delay. He will now have to put things on hold because the court order issued by Judge Kenneth Karas states Papermaster should “immediately cease his employment with Apple Inc. until further Order of this Court.” It is yet unclear why the judge has requested this of Papermaster, but Karas has stated that he will make a formal statement in the near future, and hopefully let us in on his reasoning.
It goes without saying that 26-years old Papermaster is not too happy about the situation, especially since IBM did not disapprove of him handing in his two-week notice. The other strange thing is that IBM and Apple are not direct competitors – there was no sign that his leaving the IBM team would lead to a lawsuit.
