Holdsworth to appeal Reunert judgment

Last Friday‚ the High Court ruled in favour of Reunert‚ which in March filed a court application to enforce a restraint of trade signed with Holdsworth‚ the former chief executive of ECN Telecoms‚ which was bought by Reunert last year.

ECN was merged with Reunert's subsidiary Nashua to form Nashua ECN.

Reunert brought the application for an interdict after Holdsworth's AppChat employed ten of Nashua ECN's key technical staff.

Holdsworth and AppChat are prevented from "soliciting employees and customers of Nashua ECN; disclosing Reunert's confidential information; usurping or diverting any corporate opportunities belonging to Reunert (which includes the business of AppChat); and competing unlawfully or carrying on acts of corporate sabotage against Reunert‚" the court ruled.

The judge stated that Holdsworth was aware of the strategic details of Nashua ECN's mobile Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) application. But Holdsworth has strongly denied that he was aware of Nashua ECN's plans.

"It is patently clear that [Holdsworth] acted in contravention of the restraint of trade agreement. He did this by more particularly soliciting employees and customers from the very business that he had sold.

"It is particularly significant that of a purchase price of R172m paid for ECN‚ R107m of that was paid for goodwill‚" the judge stated.

Holdsworth said: "I can assure you that I had no idea that Nashua ECN was developing a VoIP application for mobile phones."

He said he was "clearly disappointed with the judgment and will most certainly be appealing it. Having had the opportunity to study the document over the weekend‚ I am appalled at the number of factual errors."

Holdsworth said he was not the chairman of Nashua ECN as stated by the judge. He said when Reunert acquired ECN‚ he was not appointed as a director or fiduciary of Nashua ECN.

"I have never been invited or attended a Nashua ECN board meeting in any capacity whatsoever - least of all as 'chairman of the board of Nashua ECN'. In June 2011‚ I was instructed by Reunert to take up a role as a consultant and work from home‚" he said.

He said from June and until his contract was terminated in November last year‚ he was "never contacted by anyone from Nashua ECN in respect of any work-related matter or instructed to perform any work on behalf of Nashua ECN".

Holdsworth said although the court ruled that he had to adhere to the contractual restraint until Thursday‚ he and his company AppChat "have not been barred from competing with Nashua ECN in the future".

Andy Openshaw‚ managing director of Nashua ECN‚ said the only thing that would fall away on Thursday was Holdsworth's restraint of trade.

But he has been "precluded indefinitely" from soliciting employees and customers of Nashua ECN‚ disclosing Reunert's confidential information; usurping or diverting any corporate opportunities belonging to Reunert (which includes the business of AppChat); and competing unlawfully or carrying on acts of corporate sabotage against Reunert.

"Although the delay of the ruling was unfortunate‚ we still believe we won what we set out to (achieve)‚ which is to protect the ECN business‚" he said