*NEWS*HP STILL LURING LEXMARK EXECUTIVES

Former executive lured others over to HP, Lexmark alleges
In
the ongoing legal battle over a top Lexmark International executive who
defected to industry leader Hewlett-Packard, the Lexington-based
printer maker now alleges the executive may have helped HP lure away
eight salespeople.
Nine more have been contacted by HP but
have not left Lexmark, Lexmark’s attorney told Fayette Circuit Judge
Thomas Clark earlier this month.The allegations are the continued
fallout from a legal case that began earlier this year after HP hired
away Bruce Dahlgren, one of Lexmark’s top 20 executives, a Lexmark
official testified.The companies will be back in court today to discuss
a proposed second deposition of Dahlgren.Earlier this month, Lexmark
attorney Larry Sykes asked Clark to approve his request seeking more
information from HP about an apparent “concerted effort by
Hewlett-Packard to hire Lexmark sales people — sales people who were
in fact in Mr. Dahlgren’s organization when he was at Lexmark.”Earlier
this year, Clark issued a temporary restraining order, ruling that
Dahlgren must abide by an employee agreement, which prohibits him from
working on North American sales strategy and other issues — his job at
Lexmark — for one year and from luring away Lexmark’s employees or
certain customers for three years.A judge in California, where
non-compete clauses are generally prohibited, said earlier this year
that Lexmark could not enforce that ruling. The California judge later
ruled the non-compete and recruiting clauses in the employment
agreement were void in California. The California case is
ongoing.Representatives from each company declined to comment for this
story. The companies’ lawyers did not return calls, nor did
Dahlgren.Sykes, Lexmark’s attorney, said in Fayette Circuit Court
earlier this month that eight former Lexmark sales employees have
joined HP recently. He asked Clark for expedited discovery times and
for additional information from HP about the contact the industry
leader, and Dahlgren, had with those former Lexmark employees.”One
reason we want to expedite it is to stop the drain of salespeople…,”
Sykes told the court. “We have more than just a suspicion that perhaps
Mr. Dahlgren might be involved.”Sykes went on to note an e-mail
exchange between Dahlgren and HP human resources executive Rand Dunn
over a Lexmark sales worker who had expressed interest in working for
HP.Sykes read an e-mail Dunn sent to Dahlgren regarding Lexmark
employee Ariel Manalo:”Hi, Bruce. It’s already working. How aggressive
do you propose I respond? Is he an A-plus player?”Sykes said Dahlgren
replied, “Ariel is a strong player in Northern California. My
recommendation is to ask him to forward a resume of some form to you. I
think we’ll want to come across as open and receptive. Word will travel
quickly. My guess is that we will only get a few before Lexmark pushes
back hard, and we should be selective in those first few.”The e-mail
creates “a very reasonable suspicion,” Sykes told the judge, that
Dahlgren was playing a role in recruiting or hiring people. Doing so
would violate the terms of his Lexmark employee agreement because his
opinion of former Lexmark employees would be based on confidential
information he obtained during his time at Lexmark.Manalo said Friday
his decision to join HP “had nothing to do with Bruce.””I lived 10
miles from Hewlett-Packard headquarters, and it was me that pursued
that opportunity,” he said, adding he had no contact with Dahlgren in
the hiring process.Two more of the eight former Lexmark employees
contacted by the Herald-Leader said their leaving had nothing to do
with Dahlgren.”I haven’t been in touch with Bruce since over a year and
a half ago or so,” said Larry Goldstein, who worked for Lexmark in
California and is now relocating from California to Arizona for
HP.Stanley Kazee also said his decision was “completely
independent.”The other five HP employees either declined to comment or
did not return calls.All nine of the current Lexmark employees whom
Sykes said HP had recruited declined to comment or did not return
calls.Thomas Metzger, who represents HP and Dahlgren, countered in
court that Dahlgren has not been “out there soliciting” and Lexmark
executives, in depositions taken for the case, “have no facts — zero
facts — to suggest that Mr. Dahlgren has been involved in soliciting
employees or encouraging employees to leave.”Sykes later told the judge
that the e-mail exchange between Dunn and Dahlgren had been designated
as viewable to only the attorneys in the case, though, so the
executives at Lexmark would not have had knowledge of it.Metzger also
called Sykes’ requests for more information, specifically all
communications between HP and Lexmark employees, a “massive fishing
expedition.”Clark ruled that the eight Lexmark employees hired by HP
could be deposed in the case if Lexmark wished.The companies are
expected to be in court again today on a motion by Lexmark’s attorneys
to compel a second deposition of Dahlgren.In filings last week, the
Lexmark attorneys wrote that their deposition of HP executive Vyomesh
Joshi — Dahlgren’s supervisor — showed that Dahlgren’s development of
a worldwide market strategy would compete against Lexmark in North
America and violate Clark’s temporary restraining order.Joshi later
said in the deposition that there is “‘a ‘firewall’ in terms of what
they are doing with respect to North America,” the attorneys wrote, but
added the testimony entitles Lexmark to question Dahlgren
again.Dahlgren’s perceived importance to HP is his experience in
selling printing solutions, which involves helping companies improve
workflow and printing needs.He left Lexmark on Jan. 9 after nearly six
years as a vice president and general manager, overseeing North
American sales and marketing for Lexmark’s Printing Solutions and
Services Division, where he earned up to $750,000 annually, according
to court testimony.