VMware slaps lawsuit against Nutanix CEO Rajiv Ramaswami
Cloud infrastructure firm VMware announced that it had initiated legal proceedings against its former COO Rajiv Ramaswami, for material and ongoing breaches of his legal and contractual duties and obligations to VMware.
India-born Ramaswami had quit VMware to join Nutanix as CEO, two days after leaving the company.
“For at least two months before resigning from the company, at the same time he was working with senior leadership to shape VMware’s key strategic vision and direction, Ramaswami also was secretly meeting with at least the CEO, CFO, and apparently the entire Board of Directors of Nutanix, Inc. to become Nutanix’s Chief Executive Officer,” said VMware in a statement.
Nutanix had appointed Ramaswami as chief executive on December 10, after founder Dheeraj Pandey had announced that he would be stepping down from the role.
“Ramaswami demonstrated poor judgement and had a clear and extended period of conflict of interest. He should have disclosed this conflict of interest to VMware so that the company could have taken steps to protect itself. But he did not notify VMware, and thus deprived the company of the ability to do so by concealing his Nutanix-related activities,” said the statement.
The company said that it tried to resolve the matter without litigation but Ramaswami and Nutanix refused to engage with VMware in a satisfactory manner. The company invests billions of dollars in R&D and is committed to protecting our brand, the technological innovations behind our brand, and the value we bring to our customers, it said.
Prior to this, Ramaswami led VMware's Networking and Security business, before which he worked at Broadcom. He earned his B. Tech in Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and his Master’s Degree and PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley.
Nutanix said in the statement, regarding the VMware Lawsuit, VMware’s lawsuit seeks to make interviewing for a new job wrongful. We view VMware’s misguided action as a response to losing a deeply valued and respected member of its leadership team.
Mr. Ramaswami and Nutanix have gone above and beyond to be proactive and cooperative with VMware throughout the transition. Nutanix and Mr. Ramaswami assured VMware that Mr. Ramaswami agreed with his obligation not to take or misuse confidential information, and VMware does not contend otherwise. However, VMware requested that Mr. Ramaswami agree to limit the ordinary performance of his job duties in a manner that would equate to an illegal non-compete covenant, and it requested that Nutanix agree not to hire candidates from VMware in a manner that Nutanix believes would be contrary to the federal antitrust laws.
Mr. Ramaswami is proud of his tenure at VMware and counts many VMware team members as friends. It is disappointing to see VMware’s management sue him just because he chose to pursue an opportunity to become a public company CEO. We believe that VMware’s action is nothing more than an unfounded attempt to hurt a competitor and we intend to vigorously defend this matter in court.
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