HP Forced To Bench Poached EMC Exec
EMC has clipped the wings of the erstwhile president of its storage division David Donatelli, who suddenly resigned last Monday and tried to flit to rival HP to run its storage, servers and networking.
EMC sued to enforce his one-year non-compete and got the preliminary injunction it asked for stopping him from starting his new job on Tuesday May 5 as scheduled.
Donatelli sued first asking a California court to scrap his non-compete; HP’s headquartered in California where they don’t much care for non-competes but the Massachusetts court where EMC sought succor decided late Monday that “Donatelli’s intention to work for HP in California, which has a statutory prohibition on covenants not to compete, does not warrant denial of EMC’s request for injunctive relief.”
The court’s order said, “The court concludes that the covenant which Donatelli signed is an enforceable contract, is not unreasonably broad (at least on its face) and serves legitimate business interests of EMC.”
The next move appears to be a hearing. If history is any guide EMC, which probably feels stabbed in the back, is not going to be very negotiable. After 22 years with the company and talk of being EMC’s next CEO, Donatelli knows all its secrets.
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