REDMOND, Wash.-Microsoft Corp. has countered mobile-phone maker Sendo’s claims that Microsoft purposely drove the company to the brink of bankruptcy, insisting instead that Sendo was to blame for the situation by not devoting enough resources to its planned Microsoft Smartphone and misleading Microsoft concerning its financial situation in hopes of receiving additional funding.
The legal clash stems from Microsoft’s 2000 partnership with Sendo, under which Sendo promised to build a smart phone using Microsoft’s software. The phone was delayed several times, until late last year when Sendo abruptly switched tracks and dropped Microsoft in favor of rival Nokia Corp. Sendo then filed suit against Microsoft, claiming the company used its relationship with Sendo to get inside the wireless industry.
According to Microsoft’s counterclaim to Sendo’s suit, Microsoft made efforts to help Sendo develop the phone by sending Microsoft developers to work at Sendo’s United Kingdom headquarters, by making strategic business introductions for Sendo and by investing in the company. However, Sendo ran the project into the ground through mismanagement, according to Microsoft. Microsoft even quotes a Sendo employee stating that the phone project was a “runaway train” in which “there is nobody sensible in control and a train wreck is unavoidable.”
Microsoft filed a motion to dismiss Sendo’s complaints, and a counterclaim against Sendo for breech of contract. Microsoft also requested that the case be transferred to the Western District of Washington.
