Moto sues former exec for joining Apple

Motorola Inc. is screaming foul over a former executive now helping Apple Inc. with its global market expansion.
The Schaumburg, Ill., firm – whose international device business is crumbling – said in a lawsuit filed last week that Mike Fenger, a former VP for international devices sales, violated a non-compete clause related to stock options by moving to Apple, according to a report today in the Wall Street Journal.
In the past two years, Motorola has seen several key executives depart for rival firms. Its top device executive, Ron Garriques, departed for Dell Inc. in January 2007, and its CTO, Padmasree Warrior, departed for Cisco Systems Inc. last December. Other executives have departed for Research In Motion Ltd., according to the WSJ.
Motorola has also cut thousands of jobs and re-organized its international sales team.
Fenger left Motorola in March and joined Apple to lead the latter’s global sales effort. Motorola’s lawsuit alleged that Fenger agreed to not work for a competitor for two years after departing, based on his receipt of certain stock options. The lawsuit charged that Fenger’s new job would lead to the disclosure of “trade secrets.” The lawsuit also said Fenger had improperly assisted Apple in recruiting two other, former Motorola employees. Motorola is seeking to prevent Fenger from performing his role at Apple for two years and to force him to return stock options worth millions of dollars.
According to the WSJ, both Fenger and Apple declined to respond publicly to the Motorola complaint.
Apple is in the midst of rolling out its 3G iPhone in countries across the world.