This Boise tech company was just ordered to pay $44 million over stolen trade secrets
A Boise software company has been ordered to pay $44 million in damages in a lawsuit over trade secrets.
The lawsuit, brought four years ago by Connecticut-based financial software company SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc., alleged that Boise’s Clearwater Analytics hired two SS&C employees who made copies of confidential SS&C product and customer documents before leaving SS&C with the intent to use them at their new jobs.
Clearwater Analytics denied any wrongdoing, but a jury in Cook County, Illinois, sided last week with SS&C and ordered the Idaho company to pay damages, including $28 million in punitive damages. The judgment is subject to appeal.
SS&C Chief Executive Bill Stone called the verdict gratifying and showed the U.S. justice system punishes bad behavior. “We spent a lot of money and the case took lots of time,” Stone said in a news release. “All of us find it gratifying that justice was done.”
Clearwater said Thursday that it was disappointed in the verdict.
“In 2015, we hired an enterprise sales representative who was previously employed by SS&C,” spokesperson Lauren Brassey said in a statement emailed to the Idaho Statesman. “He brought with him a prospect list and other documents. That was completely inappropriate, and as a company, we cannot and will not tolerate such behavior.
“We acted decisively — we quarantined the SS&C documents, established a ‘no call’ list, and worked hard to ensure that we did not use the information in any way. We also terminated the employment of the enterprise sales representative and the Clearwater manager who were involved in this action.
“In light of Clearwater’s swift and responsible actions once we learned of the misconduct, and the fact that SS&C suffered no actual losses, we are disappointed with this verdict. In any case, the outcome of this matter will not change how we serve our clients. Nor does it restrict, in any way, our current product offering or influence our product development roadmap.”
This story was originally published May 1, 2019 at 7:29 PM.