Gossip

Gossip: so will Chris Burke see his dinners go to Wybrow? or will CDMA pay the bill?

What's all this I hear about Vodafone's new Chief Technical Officer looking for a gym? A "calorie dump"?

Your Sniffer can't believe that Paul Wybrow would have a figure problem, but unkind underlings are forecasting weight gain for the man who spent so long in the shadows, eating sandwiches in the canteen, and who (they tell me) is suddenly being wined and dined at Claridges.

It's jealousy, of course. And those who say it's all part of the growing fashion for "Consultative Board" investments by Accenture are imagining things.

These "boards" are dining clubs. You're rich and famous, and well connected. So you invite all your Important Friends to lunch at the Yacht Club (well, that's what I do!) and then you look for someone else to pay the handsome bill. And in exchange for being included in the invite someone like Accenture funds the meeting.

But in this case, that's absurd. I mean, why on earth would Accenture feel they need to build closer links with Vodafone? Just because of unkind rumours that Chris Burke, the previous CTO, wouldn't let them in the building...

Don't weep for Burke, though. There are other things in store for him, now he's moved to  Vistula... because it seems that Accenture isn't the only company to think about the trend to set up consultative boards.

Ask yourself: which large American owner of IP (intellectual property, guys, not Internet protocol, for goodness sake!) and pioneer of CDMA would love to have access to all Chris Burke's old contacts inside Vodafone?

Enter Qualcomm, still without a friend in Europe, with enough money to buy lunches for Chris and his friends for months...