GlobeDirect Alleges Former Employees Stole Trade Secrets, Clients
GlobeDirect LLC, a direct mail and marketing firm owned by Globe Newspaper Co., has filed a complaint against six former employees. The complaint alleges the employees stole work histories, customer lists and internal documents, and have enticed GlobeDirect clients to work with Kirkwood Direct.
The defendants had not filed a response by deadline, and were not immediately available for comment.
According to the complaint, in the summer of 2006, GlobeDirect announced plans to consolidate its direct mail operations with certain functions of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette (both operations are owned by The Boston Globe). Subsequently, Stephen Duncan, formerly vice president of GlobeDirect and currently president of Kirkwood Direct, allegedly announced plans to leave GlobeDirect and join Kirkwood, an entity formed in December 2006, the court papers said.
The complaint claims that Duncan informed management he would not be doing any work for Kirkwood that involved the direct-to-consumer mail work he was doing for GlobeDirect, and that he would not be competing with GlobeDirect in his new position.
Despite this, GlobeDirect claims that the newly formed Kirkwood Direct was formed to “provide business with turnkey direct marketing products and services including strategy, printing, data management, data acquisition, letter shop, fulfillment/kitting, postal processing, logistics, media planning and media buying.” In that, “the solo mail aspect of Kirkwood Direct’s business would be virtually indistinguishable from GlobeDirect’s,” the complaint continues.
GlobeDirect also alleges that in mid-December, James Galante, formerly GlobeDirect’s national account executive and now an employee with Kirkwood, announced to a co-worker “I got Comcast!” Galante had (unsuccessfully) tried woo the co-worker, Charles Hourvitz, GlobeDirect’s director of plant operations, away from GlobeDirect.
According to the papers, other GlobeDirect clients, including TracPoint Wireless, C-Suite, WorkflowOne and Sports Club LA were solicited to send their work to Kirkwood. Galante allegedly told representatives from Sports Club LA that the Boston Globe “was in the process of selling GlobeDirect and that GlobeDirect was no longer in the direct mail business.” Both of these statements are false, the court documents continue.
GlobeDirect further alleges that the defendants stole trade secrets regarding its proprietary “Total Market Coverage” system, which allows advertisers not to mail their offers to consumers who have already been exposed to the messages through The Boston Globe. The papers also claim the defendants stole “Genalytics reports” or “Experian reports,” which provide demographic profiles of consumers within specified geographic areas.
In addition to Duncan and Galante, the defendants include Ralph Dellatto, formerly GlobeDirect’s director of sales and marketing; Robert Medwar, formerly GlobeDirect’s senior account manager; Steven Kuczwara, formerly GlobeDirect’s director of data processing and quality control; and Terri Guietti, formerly a customer service representative for GlobeDirect, as well as the company they allegedly currently work for, Kirkwood Direct LLC, and Kirkwood Printing Co. Inc., Kirkwood Direct’s parent firm.
The complaint was filed in the Superior Court Department of the Trial Court for Massachusetts on Feb. 5.
