Kashless, the parent of Seattle-based group deals site Tippr, is accusing New York- and Boston-based BuyWithMe of improperly obtaining insider information from a Tippr employee in a civil lawsuit filed in Seattle.
Kashless’s lawsuit, filed in King County Superior Court, alleges that BuyWithMe founder Andrew Moss successfully solicited financial information from a Tippr salesman, Andrew DeLorenzo, who had been looking for another job.
In an injunction signed Feb. 4, King County Superior Court Judge Steven C. Gonzalez found that it “appears likely that BuyWithMe ‘misappropriated’ the information” under state law, and that there is a “substantial likelihood” that evidence in the case will show BuyWithMe’s actions constituted theft under state law.
Under “findings of fact,” the judge’s order says that last October, Moss e-mailed DeLorenzo to ask: “Do you think you can find out how much $$ is left in the bank, and how much he is spending every month in overhead, personnel, etc?… Do you have these same reports by city?”
The judge’s order also finds that DeLorenzo sent Moss Kashless’s total gross sales revenue, weekly and monthly cash burn rates, and its total expenses, along with a table showing performance by salespeople and Kashless’s total number of subscribers.
The order then says Moss sent along a report on this information to other BuyWithMe senior officers, and that they indicated plans to “significantly disrupt Tippr.”
Subsequent e-mail traffic also indicated that the BuyWithMe officials knew the information might be
