ON TUESDAY, it emerged that Vodafone had put Paul Woods in charge of Perlico, the Irish fixed-line and broadband provider that it acquired in November 2007 for an initial €32 million in cash.

"His role will include the full integration of the Perlico business into Vodafone," the mobile operator stated.

The integration was originally led by Iain MacDonald, Perlico's founder and 20 per cent shareholder.

It seems that MacDonald left the business some weeks back, forsaking a sizeable chunk of the potential €48 million earnout, spread over three years, that formed part of the sale deal with Vodafone. It is understood that Vodafone ended up paying just under €60 million to Perlico's backers, who included Michael Smurfit and Kingspan founder Eugene Murtagh.

It had initially agreed to pay €80 million if certain performance targets were reached.

It is not clear why MacDonald decided to cash in his chips so early into his three-year earnout period. A week after Vodafone announced the purchase of Perlico, MacDonald indicated in an interview with The Irish Times that he planned to stick around for some time.

"This (the sale) isn't an end point for me and it's not a pinnacle in terms of developing the business," he said at the time. "We've still got a very exciting job to do and that's what I'm focusing on for the time being."

Perhaps his entrepreneurial bent didn't fit with Vodafone's corporate culture, or perhaps he felt that the current recession meant that the full €48 million would never be achieved. Or maybe Vodafone just wanted its own man in charge.

MacDonald is thought to be taking a break before deciding his next career move. With just under €12 million in his back pocket, he won't be short of options.