Mike Volpi: He was also considered to be in line as a potential successor to Chambers. During his 13-year tenure at Cisco, Volpi helped spearhead Cisco's acquisition strategy in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He left the company as senior vice president of Cisco's routing and service provider technology group over two years ago to join Joost, an Internet video start-up. Things unraveled recently though, as Volpi was removed as Joost CEO and the company abandoned its initial business plan. Volpi then became embroiled in litigation with Joost and Skype cofounders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis over majority ownership of Skype, which was being sold by eBay. A series of revealing e-mails involving Volpi's involvement in the Skype dealings emerged and he and his investment group were ultimately left out of the sale.