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HP accused of spying on Dell: like the movies, only lame
We're sorry, but what's the good in corporate espionage if there aren't any high speed car chases, or innocent bystanders getting killed in the crossfire? Not much good, that's what. That's why we're a bit let down by this whole HP / Dell situation -- spying on Dell in hopes to unveil printer business secrets just doesn't quite have a blockbuster ring to it. All the same, there's plenty of drama in this situation to be getting on with. See, Karl Kamb got sacked by HP for purportedly founding a competing business while on the job -- Byd:sign, a flat-panel TV outfit -- and syphoning off HP resources and R&D to do it. He's being sued by HP for $100 million, and has now countersued HP, claiming that they hired him in 2002 to spy on Dell, a former employer of his, and of course asserting that all that "siphoning funds" stuff was off the mark. Just to make it all the more dramatic ('cause helping out HP anticipate a Dell launch into the printer business still isn't cutting it for us), Kamb is also asserting that HP obtained his private phone records via pretexting, a little practice that HP got into a heap big amount of trouble for last year. No telling at this point who's telling the truth: on the one hand, HP doesn't really have the best track record with pretexting and such, but at the same time it seems quite the convenient out for Kamb, to mark up HP's wrongdoings towards him as another case of pretexting. There's plenty more drama under the surface here, so we recommend hitting up the read link for more info -- before we start talking sequels.[Via Slashdot]
