Apple's chief scientist leaves to head a startup
August 5, 1997 05:40 PM
PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug 5 (Reuter) - Apple Computer Inc.'s AAPL chief
scientist and vice president of advanced technology Lawrence Tesler has
left the company to head a new startup marketing children's software, his
offices said.
Tesler, who helped lead Apple's technical direction during a difficult
turnaround effort at Apple, departed on Thursday last week, according to
his office at Apple.
Employees at the new company, dubbed Cocoa Software and based here
in Palo Alto, said Tesler has accepted the role of president of the company.
They declined to provide further details about its financial backers or
product strategy.
"We do children's software and we're brand new...Larry's the new
president," said David Smith, one of the seven employees of the fledgling
company.
Apple Computer had no immediate comment on Tesler's departure, which
became public on the eve of a closely watched keynote address by Apple
co-founder Steve Jobs at Macworld Expo in Boston, where the company
is expected to unveil a new product and business strategy.
Through a work colleague at Cocoa, Tesler declined any immediate
comment on his decision to leave Apple.
One of his colleagues at Apple said he had departed to take on the
challenge of building a new company from the beginning.
"He's off to a new adventure. He was so happy about it. He knew this was
the right thing for him to do," the Apple work associate said. "It is Apple's
great loss."
One Apple associate said the departure was amicable.
Tesler, who came from Xerox Corp's XRX famed Xerox Palo Alto
Research Center (PARC), had been chief scientist at Apple since 1993,
where he served the role of technical advisor to the company and managed
technical alliances. Tesler joined Apple in 1980 to work as a section
manager of applications software for the Lisa personal computer.
Although the Lisa was considered overpriced and underpowered and did
not catch on, subsequent Macintosh computers became Apple's flagship
product line.
(sam.perry@reuters.com, in Palo Alto, +1 415 846 5400)
Following are Reuters Alerts related to this article
ALERT
APPLE CHIEF SCIENTIST LAWRENCE TESLER HAS LEFT
COMPANY, HIS OFFICE SAYS |
