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BlackBerry sues its own SVP of Software as he attempts to leave the company for Apple

BlackBerry has filed a lawsuit against one of its own executives over his decision to leave the company for a position at Apple, as noted by iMore. Sebastien Marineau-Mes is BlackBerry’s Senior Vice President of Software until Apple offered him a role as Vice President of Core OS last December. That’s when Marineau-Mes told BlackBerry he’d be quitting in two months for Cupertino.

But because Marineau-Mes had signed a contract that required him to give six months notice before leaving (rather than two), the company filed a lawsuit to keep him around for four extra months. The court ruled that Marineau-Mes would have to stay on with BlackBerry for the full six months before he would be allowed to vacate his post.

BlackBerry called the lawsuit “unfortunate” but said that it expected Marineau-Mes to fulfill the contractual terms he agreed to when he accepted his job.

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Comments

  1. Well that is fair. We’ll have him soon enough.

  2. jakexb - 11 years ago

    I bet those are going to be incredibly productive 4 extra months.

  3. Ken Barlo (@kenbarlo) - 11 years ago

    Whiny those black berry folks!

  4. Please waste 4 more months of your life with us.

  5. greggthurman - 11 years ago

    Sebastien had to know the terms of his contract. That’s pretty bad form to violate like that.

  6. scumbolt2014 - 11 years ago

    Sebastian got a RIM job.

  7. aeronperyton - 11 years ago

    When you have to tie people to the sinking ship to keep them from getting to a lifeboat, then you’ll know.

  8. greenbelt2csp - 11 years ago

    Send a company-wide email every day stating the days left until I stop spamming you with this email. Fill it with a giant attachment. Shouldn’t take too long…

  9. jerryfromcan - 11 years ago

    This isn’t just a BB issue. When you are “Senior VP of…” In the tech field for 250-300k base per year and you sign a contract stating parting terms, you don’t get to just break that contract. If BB fired him he would have expected his golden parachute he probably had built into his contract on the way in, so why expect BB wouldn’t hold him to his terms?

    I actually thought it wasn’t about 6 months notice but rather a non-compete. So this guy isn’t in the office, he is probably sitting at home with no one paying him.

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