A former high-ranking executive at Hewlett-Packard is being sued for allegedly stealing hundreds of documents from the tech giant.
Adrian Jones, HP's former head of enterprise sales for the Asia region, now works for the tech firm's arch rival Oracle. His former employer claims Jones stole documents and emails on a USB device which contained proprietary and valuable information about HP's products and customers.
The lawsuit claims HP was about to fire Jones in February after an investigation into his relationship with a subordinate and spurious expense claims. The suit further alleges that Jones arranged for a 97% pay increase for the subordinate, and claimed several thousand dollars in expenses for visits to the subordinate that had no apparent business purpose.
According to HP, Jones resigned and joined Oracle before any action was taken. He is now Oracle's senior vice-president for Asia Pacific and Japan.
The lawsuit, filed in the California Superior Court in Santa Clara, California, calls for all the allegedly stolen documents and emails to be returned and damages to be awarded. According to HP, among the documents taken were financial plans, sales figures and employee data.
Once close allies, HP and Oracle became fierce rivals after Oracle's purchase of Sun Microsystems in 2009 pushed it firmly into the server hardware market, an area where the two had previously cooperated. Relations soured further last year when Mark Hurd was ousted as HP chief executive and swiftly joined Oracle.
The latest scandal echos Hurd's exit. Hurd left HP after an investigation of a sexual harassment claim uncovered inaccurate expense reports. The company concluded Hurd did not breach its harassment policy.
Larry Ellison, Oracle's founder, called the decision to oust Hurd "the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago". A month after he quit, Hurd joined Oracle as president. Legal wrangling over Hurd's hiring are ongoing.
HP has a history of internecine legal battles. In 2006, it emerged that private detectives employed by the firm had posed as board members and journalists to obtain private phone records as they investigated leaks on the board. The scandal triggered a criminal investigation.