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back to article Three Four top Cisco execs leave after being made 'advisors'

Last week, a Cisco reorganisation switched three of its big names to advisory roles: this week, they've left the company. The individuals involved are Mario Mazzola, Prem Jain, Luca Cafiero, and Soni Jiandani were referred to as “MPLS” within the company (Cisco was an early contributor to the protocol of the same acronym). …

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  1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    FAIL

    Dell really is becoming a ...

    four letter word.

    mind you the recent goings on at HPE are not much better.

    Headless chickens seem to come to mind.

    1 4 Reply
  2. Oengus

    If Cisco gave them $100m and they turned it into $863m you can bet the VCs will provide them seed capital if they come up with an idea. Cisco had better have good clauses in the employment contracts and good "non-compete" terms in the termination agreements...

    5 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      A bit more complex

      Cisco gave them 100M, IPR, support and god knows what else. Just the IPR and support are several 100M. On top of that they had a guaranteed lifeline - they would have been bought back even if not successful to ensure the IPR does not end up with a competitor.

      What they did was the standard method to avoid being killed or die of blood loss due to repeated knives in the back by NOSTG and the existing router groups while working on anything innovative in Cisco. I always laugh hysterically when I hear Cisco and innovation in one sentence. There are only 1-2 really innovative projects which have succeeded in Cisco within the last 15 years. Everything else is either acquired or spin-out/spin-in.

      4 1 Reply
    2. ecarlseen
      Reply Icon

      Heh.

      Non-competes are basically unenforceable in California. It's one of the reasons Silicon Valley is Silicon Valley.

      5 0 Reply
    3. Gay Gunowner
      Reply Icon

      Non-Competes: NA in CA

      Non-competes are unenforceable in CA. Many view that as an essential part of Silicon Valley's success.

      1 0 Reply
  3. Mark 85

    I guess since things are "flat", short term profits mean more than long term goals to Cisco. The downward spiral has started for them.

    3 0 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cisco's loss. Curious to see what this bunch comes up with in the way of product ideas. Failing that, I hear Arista is hiring.

    0 0 Reply

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