In a brilliantly played game of legal brinkmanship, the Suffolk County Superior Court of Massachusetts has masterfully called the "bluff" made by HP's new networking boss David Donatelli.
The "bluff" you may recall concerned the ludicrous argument (in my opinion) made during his May 1 court hearing (page 13) in Massachusetts:
"Storage-related responsibilities will make up only about 20% of Donatelli's position at HP, the majority of his responsibilities will relate to servers and networking gear - two areas EMC does not occupy."
So calling Donatelli's "bluff," the Massachusetts Court entered an order on May 21 that allowed Donatelli to begin working at HP earlier this week, but with the "caveat" that Donatelli doesn't have HP storage-related responsibilities for an entire year (the length of his non-compete agreement with EMC).
However, it is also interesting to note that during the earlier May 1 court hearing (page 13), EMC argued that the "integration of EMC's storage products with servers and networking equipment gives EMC's products a competitive edge; in counsel's words, it's all linked."
Well, apparently EMC's argument must be true (in my opinion) as Donatelli's famous Boston employment lawyer - Jay Shepherd responded to last week's court order:
"All the ruling says is that David can start working at HP, and it limits what he can and cannot do there for the time being. It remains a preliminary injunction, and both the Massachusetts and California cases are proceeding."
In the meantime, rather then report to Donatelli as had originally been planned, Dave Roberson - senior vice president and general manager of the HP StorageWorks division, will now report directly to Ann Livermore - executive vice president of the HP Technology Solutions Group, until the order is lifted or modified in future court proceedings or until the 1 year non-compete agreement with EMC expires.
EMC's response to the modified court order:
"We are pleased with the court's ruling upholding the terms of the EMC key employee agreement. The judge has entered an order as proposed by EMC that precludes Mr. Donatelli from being engaged in any aspect of HP's business that overlaps or competes with EMC's storage business for a 12-month period."
View the entire 2 page EMC vs. Donatelli Order Modifying Preliminary Injunction below:
Do you agree with the new modified court order?
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