Onetta Inc. president and CEO Dennis Barsema hasn't officially left his post, but his days at the company are numbered. Since July, Barsema has been grooming his first hire, chief operating officer Orlando Reyes, to take his place.

"Dennis is looking to take some time off starting in 2003, and Orlando is slated to assume the CEO title in January," says Robert MacDonald, Onetta's founder and VP of product management.

This information on Barsema's expected depature from Onetta comes following a recent report on Unstrung, Light Reading's wireless news Website, that says Barsema is rumored to be taking the top job at Tahoe Networks (see Nouveau CEO for Tahoe?). Barsema is already on Tahoe's board, but one unnamed source told Unstrung that he "is expanding his role at the company."

Whatever his plans are, Barsema hasn't shown all his cards to both companies. "I don't know what role [Barsema] will play relative to Tahoe," MacDonald says.

A call to Barsema's voicemail at Tahoe Networks was not returned.

Barsema took the helm at Onetta in November 2000. Prior to that, he served as CEO of Redback Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: RBAK), a post he held for three years.

MacDonald says Barsema will remain chairman of Onetta after Reyes becomes CEO in January.

Besides Barsema, Tahoe and Redback have another common link: an old lawsuit over the development of a wireless router. In the suit, which was settled in January 2002, Redback accused Tahoe and two of its employees of using Redback's trade secrets and unlawfully trying to hire away Redback's employees (see Redback's Wireless Past ).

— Phil Harvey, Senior Editor, Light Reading