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Commentary: Papermaster not to set foot in Cupertino

  • Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP

    • Papermaster and Apple

    Mark Papermaster, a senior vice president at IBM, has apparently taken a job with Apple computer and is expected to start working for Apple next month, according to reports. However, IBM has filed suit this week against Papermaster in a US District Court in Manhattan to stop Papermaster from joining Apple. The basis of the case is a breach in Papermaster’s Noncompetition Agreement he signed with IBM in 2006. That agreement states that Papermaster cannot join a firm that competes with IBM within one year of his termination of employment.  Mark Papermaster has been with IBM for 26 years and is a member of IBM’s elite I&VT (Integration & Values Team), which includes IBM’s top 300 senior managers and thus has wide access to company intellectual property and trade secrets, including top secret IBM strategy. 

    IBM’s Case: Noncompete Agreement Details

    The details of the IBM Noncompetition Agreement are significant. The agreement states that Papermaster agrees that he will not (within 1 year of termination) “engage in or associate with (a) any ‘Business Enterprise’ or (b) any significant competitor or major competitor of the Company…”.  By “Business Enterprise” the agreement means any entity or entity that owns or controls a significant interest in any entity that engages in competition with the “business units or divisions of the Company” (IBM) in which you have worked at any time during the two year period prior to the termination. The agreement further defines “engage in” completely to include both consultant and contractor status, so even if Papermaster didn’t join Apple as an employee he would still be barred from engaging with Apple. 

    IBM’s case based on this Noncompetition Agreement seems to hinge on Apple being deemed:

    Since Apple is a consumer-oriented electronics manufacturer and software company one might argue that Apple cannot be a significant competitor to IBM as the two have no overlapping competitive fields. Companies must be careful about what they say about Apple two. The press has asked Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer on several occasions if Apple was seen a major competitor to Microsoft (the resurgent Apple, circa early 2000’s) and Apple was dismissed. They instead said Linux was viewed a major competitor but not Apple. How many IBM executives have said similar comments to the press about Apple?  These days however Apple owns a subsidiary called PA Semi, a group of elite chip design engineers and computer scientists. This group specifically makes chips based on IBM’s Power Architecture designs. However, it may be deemed that PA Semi does not qualify as being deemed a competitor of IBM’s chip units or divisions. 

    Mark Papermaster’s Role at Apple

    It is not clear what Papermaster’s role would be at Apple. But IBM is hell bent on him not joining Apple. The company offered him a substantial pay increase to keep him. Additionally, it is reported IBM offered to pay him one year’s salary if he would just refrain from joining a competitor. A MacNN post notes that he was expecting to work closely with Steve Jobs.


    Some speculate that Apple is serious about its future with the Xserve and that perhaps Papermaster will help Apple rev up its enterprise offerings. Mark Papermaster was last in charge of IBM’s Blade Server division. That is very unlikely since Apple needs far more than a blade server genius to make it in the enterprise. To make it there it would need an entire enterprise sales and support division. That runs entirely counter to how service and sales work at Apple now — wrapped around Apple Stores. 

    Larry Dignan of ZDNet states that Papermaster could be useful to Apple’s MobileMe initiatives and cloud computing. Like the enterprise server theory that too seems a stretch. Apple would be better served by learning and cooperating with its new best buddy, Google. And Apple would be ill-served by strategically planning to battle Google directly with cloud computing. It would be far better to partner as both Apple and Google have a common enemy in Microsoft. 

    Papermaster’s role at Apple is a mystery but his experiences and know-how at IBM are suggestive. Papermaster has deep chip design experience and knowledge of IBM’s future plans with the Power Architecture. Three IBM whitepapers by Mark Papermaster all pertain to modern concerns behind processor design that are relevant to Apple.

    One such paper addresses modern programs and modern cache design. Another centers on high-performance PowerPC processors, while a third deals with branch predictability of programs in synthetic workloads. This last one has broad applicability to the development of methods of estimating, measuring and comparing the performance of computer systems by utilizing “parametric synthetic workloads” that mimic the behavior of long-running real world applications. 

    If Apple’s interest in PA Semi is multifaceted and ultimately interested in developing silicon technologies that uniquely position Apple’s three major platforms (Mac, iPhone and iPod) for optimal future competitiveness, certainly Papermaster’s deep history at IBM and knowledge of Power Architecture and chip design in general could very well serve the interest of Jobs & Co. at Apple. Papermaster is more likely another critical addition to Apple’s already superstar team of PA Semi engineers.

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