EMC tries to block executive from joining HP

EMC is trying to prevent top storage executive David Donatelli from joining rival HP, filing a lawsuit to enforce a non-competition agreement.

Donatelli, the former president of EMC’s storage division, resigned from EMC Monday with the intention of joining HP, and filed a lawsuit in a California state court seeking to void his employee agreement with EMC. EMC subsequently filed suit against Donatelli in Massachusetts, claiming he violated the employee agreement, which contains a non-competition clause. 

“"Mr. Donatelli's key employee agreement with EMC contains a non-competition clause and other protections that we intend to enforce,” an EMC spokesperson writes in an e-mail.

HP on Tuesday announced the appointment of Donatelli as executive vice president of enterprise servers, storage and networking, effective May 5On Thursday, HP declined to comment and said it is not offering interviews with HP executives or with Donatelli.
Donatelli was paid $17.2 million by EMC over the past three years.