April 29, 2024

Apple Nearly Witnessed an Insurrection Over Bob Mansfield's Departure

Posted October 3, 2012 at 4:15pm by iClarified · 12321 views
Apple nearly witnessed an insurrection over the departure of Bob Mansfield from the position of SVP of Hardware Engineering, reports BusinessWeek.

Earlier this summer, Cook actually did lose a key member of his team-and then nearly witnessed an insurrection in one of Apple's most prominent divisions. On June 28, Apple announced the retirement of Senior Vice President Bob Mansfield, who for over a decade oversaw the remarkable expansion of the Macintosh line before taking on the iPhone and iPad as well. According to three people familiar with the sequence of events, several senior engineers on Mansfield's team vociferously complained to Cook about reporting to his replacement, Dan Riccio, who they felt was unprepared for the magnitude of the role. In response, Cook approached Mansfield and offered him an exorbitant package of cash and stock worth around $2 million a month to stay on at Apple as an adviser and help manage the hardware engineering team.

This tidbit comes out of BusinessWeek's article, "Mapping a Path Out of Steve Jobs's Shadow" which focuses on the challenges Tim Cook faces as the new CEO of Apple.

Read More [via MacRumors]