VMware Sues Nutanix CEO Rajiv Ramaswami, Alleges ‘Secret Meetings’ While COO

VMware filed a lawsuit against former COO Rajiv Ramaswami who, two days after leaving VMware, joined Nutanix as its CEO. VMware filed a lawsuit against former COO Rajiv Ramaswami who, two days after leaving VMware, joined Nutanix as its CEO. The lawsuit alleges Ramaswami breached his legal and contractual duties to VMware by “secretly meeting” with Nutanix’s top brass while working with VMware’s leadership to shape that company’s strategy. “Rajiv Ramaswami failed to honor his fiduciary and contractual obligations to VMware,” the vendor said in a statement. “For at least two months before resigning from the company, at the same time he was working with senior leadership to shape VMware’s key strategic vision and direction, Mr. Ramaswami also was secretly meeting with at least the CEO, CFO, and apparently the entire board of directors of Nutanix … to become Nutanix’s chief executive officer.” As COO of products and cloud services at VMware, Ramaswami played a key role in transitioning VMware toward a subscription and software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. Prior to this role, Ramaswami led VMware’s Networking and Security business. Just last month he tweeted about VMware’s new “modern network framework,” which aims to give customers a cloud operating model both in on-premises environments and public clouds, with easy migration between the two — and this echoes Nutanix’s efforts as it transitions to a subscription and SaaS company. VMware’s statement says it tried to resolve this issue without suing Ramaswami, but adds that Ramaswami and Nutanix “refused to engage with VMware in a satisfactory manner.” It also says Ramaswami “demonstrated poor judgement and had a clear and extended period of conflict of interest. He should have disclosed this conflict of interest to VMware so that the company could have taken steps to protect itself. But he did not notify VMware, and thus deprived the company of the ability to do so by concealing his Nutanix-related activities.” In its own statement, Nutanix calls VMware’s lawsuit “misguided,” and an “unfounded attempt to hurt a competitor.” “VMware’s lawsuit seeks to make interviewing for a new job wrongful,” Tonya Chin, VP of corporate communications and investor relations, said in a statement. “We view VMware’s misguided action as a response to losing a deeply valued and respected member of its leadership team. Mr. Ramaswami and Nutanix have gone above and beyond to be proactive and cooperative with VMware throughout the transition. Mr. Ramaswami is proud of his tenure at VMware and counts many VMware team members as friends. It is disappointing to see VMware’s management sue him just because he chose to pursue an opportunity to become a public company CEO.”