Move and the National Association of Realtors or NAR sued Zillow and its Chief Industry Development Officer Errol Samuelson for "breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and misappropriation of trade secrets among other action." RealSelect Inc, Top Producer Systems Company and Realtors Information Network Inc also joined Move and NAR in filing the lawsuit, TechCrunch reported.
Zillow hired real estate veteran Samuelson barely a couple of weeks ago from Move, the company that owns sites like Realtor.com, where he was responsible for managing a substantial portion of its operations. Samuelson first worked with Move in 2003 and served as Realtor.com President in 2007. Last year in April, Move also promoted Samuelson, who has been with the real estate industry for 20 years, as Chief Strategy Officer.
In a statement, Move Chief Executive Officer Steve Berkowitz said, "At Move, we take our trade secrets and intellectual property extremely seriously as a valuable asset in our competitive position in the marketplace. We take action in cases in which we believe our trade secrets have been compromised. We have raised this matter for the courts and believe that the matter will be resolved judiciously."
An industry insider told TechCrunch that Samuelson had a knack for letting those in the real estate industry work with and hold Realtor.com in high regard. However, observers viewed his transfer from Move to Zillow as unprofessional and the case will serve as a reminder of this. Even if the case does not prosper, it could potentially make his work at Zillow more difficult, the report said.
Zillow has not yet said anything about the lawsuit but it has apparently not stopped the company from continuing to get more people from Move. In fact, Zillow just revealed that it has hired Curt Beardsley as its Vice President for Industry Development. Beardsley served as Move's Executive Vice President of Industry Development, a position he was promoted for so he could take over the role of Samuelson when he left, the report said.
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