David Donatelli, the former EMC executive who was sued by EMC after he was hired by Hewlett-Packard, can now work for his new employer as long as he does not touch the storage business.
After losing several top executives to EMC, HP in late April said that it appointed Donatelli as its executive vice president for enterprise servers, storage and networking, effective May 5.
Two days later, EMC and Donatelli filed suits against each other over non-compete clauses in Donatelli's contract.
Donatelli, who was most recently president of EMC's storage division, where he was responsible for the EMC storage platforms and related software businesses, filed his lawsuit in California. EMC filed its suit in Massachusetts.
HP said in a statement Tuesday that the Suffolk County Superior Court of Massachusetts entered an order to allow Donatelli to begin working at HP.
As a result, Donatelli will now serve as executive vice president of enterprise servers and networking. However, HP said that the order has certain restrictions, and as a result, storage will be managed by Dave Roberson, senior vice president and general manager of HP's StorageWorks division.
Roberson, as with Donatelli, will report to Ann Livermore, executive vice president of HP's Technology Solutions Group.
That arrangement will continue "until the order is lifted," HP said.
EMC has raided HP's executive team several times in the past.
Its catches include Mark Lewis, currently president of EMC's Content Management and Archiving Division and formerly HP's Network Storage Solutions group vice president of worldwide marketing and solutions; and Howard Elias, currently president of EMC's Global Services & Resource Management Software group and HP's former senior vice president of business management and operations.
EMC has appointed Frank Hauck, executive vice president and an 18-year EMC veteran, as the interim leader of its storage division in the wake of Donatelli's departure.
HP declined to comment further on the hiring of Donatelli.
