“Sebastien Marineau-Mes, BlackBerry’s SVP of Software, is leaving the ailing smartphone manufacturer for brighter and warmer pastures: Apple,” Derek Kessler reports for iMore. “Or at least that’s what he’s trying to do, if it weren’t for those pesky contracts.”
“As revealed in a recent ruling from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice document, Marineau-Mes began discussing leaving BlackBerry for Apple back in September 2013, and was formally offered the position of Vice President of Core OS in December,” Kessler reports. “He accepted the position and offered his written resignation to BlackBerry on December 23rd, advising them that he’d likely be heading out to Apple in two months time. That’s where the legal dispute of BlackBerry Limited v. Marineau-Mes started, as per a contract signed by Marineau-Mes that gave him a promotion to BlackBerry EVP of Platform Development he was required to provide six months notice of his resignation.”
“So BlackBerry took Marineau-Mes to court, and the court agreed that he should fulfill his six-month notice obligation at the company,” Kessler reports. “It’s hard to say what effect exactly this ruling will have on Marineau-Mes’ status at BlackBerry and Apple. At the very least we can expect that it will push back his end date in Waterloo to June 23rd — or the 4-month delay could make Apple look elsewhere.”
Read more in the full article here.
Sounds like it will be a great work environment for the next four months at Blackberry, with everyone knowing he wants to get the f*** out of there.:)
You can imagine how Steve Jobs felt when John Sculley and Apple’s BoD demoted him to pirate.
He was stripped of all Apple administrative duties in May 1985 but remained on Apple’s campus for another five-months, planning his NeXT move.
Beware of the papermaster grasshopper.
Apple could buy Blackberry and in the process pick up QNX and its software staff, and the Canadian government would probably allow the transaction providing employment in Canada continued. QNX is based in Ottawa and was acquired by Research in Motion for its software and operating system, on which CarPlay operates.
CarPlay can interface QNX infotainment systems. It is IN NO WAY reliant on QNX.
Slight nit-pick…
CarPlay does not operate on QNX, CarPlay runs on the iPhone and interfaces with the console through the Lightning port. QNX just happens to be the OS running on most consoles on the market – always has been. The iPhone does have to operate through QNX to gain access to and interface with the console’s various hardware components; this software is the only part that actually runs on QNX, it basically amounts to writing and installing drivers.
Apple has worked with QNX in the past to add iPod and Siri Eyes Free support to cars, they’re only receiving attention now, because it appears that the apps are actually running on the console. They aren’t. The console display is just being used as an external display.
Perhaps he can fix the failed email app in Mavericks that has not worked for business IMAP accounts for FOUR MONTHS and seems to be outside the scope of something Tim Cook is interested in resolving.
seems to be outside the scope of something Tim Cook is interested in resolving.
That’s right, he could care less about Mac users who use Gmail, especially you Mark.
/s