“International Business Machines Corp. sued a top executive on Thursday to prevent him from joining Apple Inc., court documents [filed with the United States District Court in Manhattan] showed,” Ajay Kamalakaran reports for Reuters.
“IBM said Mark Papermaster, who was vice president of the company’s Blade Development unit until last week, signed a noncompete agreement with IBM that would prevent him from accepting a job with a competitor until one year after leaving the company,” Kamalakaran reports.
“Papermaster, who was with IBM for the past 26 years, served as a member of the company’s Integration & Values Team since 2006. “In his capacity as a member of the I&VT, Mr. Papermaster has gained access to confidential information concerning the company’s strategic plans, marketing plans and long term business opportunities, including the development of specific IBM products,” the company said,” Kamalakaran reports.
Full article here.
Max Hertz reports for Apple Eclectic, “Mark Papermaster is described as an expert in the fields of both server and processor design — both areas of interest to Apple. Processor design is probably initially the more interesting of these. Papermaster is experienced in the design of chips using IBM’s Power architecture, the same area of specialisation as PA Semi, the company which Apple purchased earlier this year. Part of IBM’s suit is that his experience could help Apple compete against them in the market for these chips. This seems more than unlikely. Apple rarely if ever in its past has manufactured components or anything else for third parties. If they plan to design Power chips they’ll be destined for their own products.”
“I think Apple’s future server business has to be seen in conjuncture with the new multi-processor technologies due in Snow Leopard. There are other markets where Apple and the Xserve already has some traction, and those are academic research and the science industries. Here, users need access to as much computational power as possible. HPC [High Performance Computing], generally based on networks of Linux machines, are the more popular tool, but Apple has gained some ground due to the ease with which its Xgrid software can be used to control similar arrays of Macs,” Hertz reports.
More in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “James W.” for the heads up.]
Thanks to a run-in with a soccer ball last week, I met Max’s brother Dick.
Quite a disagreeable meeting it was.
IBM’s Papermaster+PASemi+Sun = One hell of a supercomputer
Sounds really painful Fred, helps you reach the High “C” though.
“prevent him from accepting a job with a competitor until one year…”
IBM no longer make PCs, MP3 players, phones. How is Apple a competitor? MacOS server and X-Serves hardly count!
HolyMackerel has a very good point. IBM hasn’t got much of a case, if any it seems.
Apple is already very good in supercomputing, the G4s were the first desktop computers that you can build clusters with. Virginia Tech had the 3rd place in the supercomputer list with a computer that cost only 5 million, about 1/10 of the price of the second place ya less than half of the 4th and 5th place.
@Demon
Did you copy my text on the other topic… or are we just in tune?? ;D
My guess is: Apple has all the competence to blow the servers AND supercomputers within the next years!
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“Apple is already very good in supercomputing, the G4s were the first desktop computers that you can build clusters with.”
Huh? Dude, people were clustering (under Linux) way before G4s were around, and they were doing it with run-of-the-mill x86 systems.
Sorry, but Apple did not invent everything.
I submitted my resume to Apple after hearing about this hiring complication. I told them not to worry about anything… I will be there for them.
They were G5’s anyway…
The non-compete doesn’t matter. If Papermaster worked in California, and the new position is in California, then his non-compete is void anyway. Because there’s no indentured servitude in the People’s Republic of California, an employer can’t prevent an employee from making a living in his or her field of expertise.
Power to the People, Baby!
Another IT Guy, ‘got your knickers in a twist this morning?
” the G4s were the first desktop computers that you can build clusters with. “
No, you could do that with NeXT slabs, and I think the Linux crowd was following in NeXT’s footsteps with Beowulf before the G4s came out.
-jcr
The reason it is filed in NY is because IBM’s headquarters are here, and he was living and working here I would assume, plus, I am sure IBM has some political pull with the NY District Attorney’s office.
I see it as a publicity stunt more than anything on the part of IBM. Sad to see the once strong relationship between the two companies fall to this level though.
I believe that Gai has it right especially if the move is vertical.
If Obama gets elected none of this will matter anyway…..
That’s right – if Obama is elected next week the rest of the world will breathe a sign of relief.
No more idiots in the White House – for 4 years at least.
of course I meant “sigh of relief…”.
Stupid fingers.
I want to have companies fight over me in court. That’s awesome. On second thought, that takes 26 years of being brilliant. Sounds like a lot of work.
“No more idiots in the White House”
Also no fewer.
FEAR ME!
Didn’t t employer/employee non-compete contracts just get a big slap down by the courts not long ago?
I know California frowns upon them, which would explain why this was filed in NY rather than CA where Mr Papermaster would most likely end up working for Apple.
Sounds like Jobs is stuffing the company with as many geniuses as he can find. The man knows how to invest in the future.
I think the rest of the industry is just grabbing at any current headline trend they see. Jobs has a vision for the future but he’s not letting on. I think he knows people will always hold on to a personal device even if most computing goes to the cloud. Apple will supply both ends. The latest consumer news about iPhone becoming a the all-in-one device for those with less disposable income shows Jobs knows what he’s doing.
nobodi, Yes indeed. The effect of the California Supreme Court ruling is that non-compete agreements are unenforceable. Good thing too.
I am the Papermaster. Fold that in your pipe and smoke it!