Rival ride services Uber and Lyft have settled high stakes litigation involving their top executives, court filings show, in advance of a trial that could have aired sensitive details about both companies.
Lyft and its former chief operating officer Travis VanderZanden settled litigation in a California state court in which Lyft accused Mr VanderZanden of breaking his confidentiality pledges when he went to work for Uber.
Uber also withdrew a subpoena on Monday in separate litigation over a data breach at Uber, which had targeted an internet address assigned to Lyft’s chief technology officer, according to a court filing.
A Lyft spokesman confirmed the settlement with Mr VanderZanden on Monday but declined to disclose the terms. An Uber representative could not immediately be reached for comment.
Mr VanderZanden served as Lyft’s chief operating office until August 2014, when he expressed disagreement with the company’s leadership and approached two board members about taking over as chief executive, according to court filings.
Lyft accepted Mr VanderZanden’s resignation instead, and he eventually became vice president of international growth at rival Uber.
Lyft sued him in November 2014. In a sworn affidavit submitted in court earlier this year, Mr VanderZanden said Lyft sued him in bad faith.
According to Mr VanderZanden's filing, Lyft surmised he had told Uber that Lyft's chief technology officer, Chris Lambert, had discovered a method to "hack into Uber's computer systems and gain access to Uber confidential information".
Lyft has said it found no evidence that any employee was involved in a data breach at Uber.
Trial in the VanderZanden case had been scheduled to begin in August.
Reuters
