BlackBerry Is Now Suing Its Executives To Prevent Them From Working For Apple

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BlackBerry — the beleaguered Canadian smartphone maker that controls literally 0 percent U.S. market share — is now suing its own executives to prevent them from quitting their jobs and flocking to Apple. Really!

Sebastien Marineau-Mes is BlackBerry’s SVP of Software. In December of last year, he was offered a job by Apple to become the Vice President of Core OS. So he quit his job at BlackBerry, giving two months’ notice.

The only problem? Apparently, Marineau-Mes signed a contract saying he’d give six months’ notice of any resignation. As iMore reports:

To add insult to injury, that contract was signed on September 27, 2013 — both while BlackBerry was under a promotional freeze (except for when you really want to keep somebody) and while Marineau-Mes was in discussions about moving to Apple. So BlackBerry took Marineau-Mes to court, and the court agreed that he should fulfill his six-month notice obligation at the company.

BlackBerry seems pleased that it has to sue its own executives to remain at the company, but as iMore observes:

For what it’s worth, Apple’s been down this road before. In 2008 Apple tried hiring Mark Papermaster away from IBM, but the transition was hung up on a no-compete clause that took several months to resolve. Apple’s a patient company when they want to be, so if they really want Marineau-Mes, they’ll wait. Until June.

Heck, by June, BlackBerry’s doors may be completely shuttered, making the whole thing moot.

Source: iMore

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