back to article Hortonworks accuses ex-sales bod of stealing customers for new job

Court documents filed in Hortonworks’ lawsuit against a former sales manager in the UK detailed accusations that he had allegedly nicked contracts for himself and his next employer, The Register can reveal. The particulars of the case, filed on December 13 and received at the High Court on February 1*, show the Apache Hadoop …

  1. ecofeco Silver badge

    Sore losers

    That's how it works. You treat your sales people bad and they leave and are more than free to contact their old clients.

    This retaliation makes it obvious WHY he left in the first place.

  2. Inachu

    If employee hired came with his clients then he can take them with him.

    But those acquired while employed must be left behind unless the customer demands to be left alone and to let them choose who they want.

    Kinda like the old argument with programmers. Programmers have a set of tools they use to make programs. Those tools are known as the programmers toolbox. Anything used within that toolbox to make programs remains the property of the programmer and is not a valid copy right claim of the company to say the toolbox is the property of the company they worked for or contracted for.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Wrong!

      If a programmer has developed the toolbox on his employers kit, during the time he’s paid then the employer absolutely has claim on the code.

  3. Ian Michael Gumby
    Boffin

    Meh

    Happens all the time.

    Reps switch companies and of course take their rolodex and personal relationships with them. A good sales rep for Hortonworks will crush Snowflake. It all depends on how they sold HWX / hadoop in the first place.

    Hortonworks is crying over the fact that they didn't have a strong enough relationship w customers.

  4. 2Nick3

    Who owns the laptop?

    "Rudall is also accused of deleting data from his work laptop without permission, something he says was to remove personal items after owning the device for the four years he had worked at Hortonworks."

    Was this BYOD with the laptop (Rudall owned it) or should there be quotes around "owning" as he was the user of a Hortonworks asset for 4 years.

    I wonder about the strength of any "don't use Hortonworks assets for personal use" clause they have in his employment contract.

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