] Foundstone's troubles began last October when the company
] brought a trade-secrets case against J.D. Glaser, its
] former director of engineering, accusing him of stealing
] proprietary code. Glaser had left Foundstone in May to
] reactivate his old company, NT Objectives. After ten
] staffers followed him, Foundstone got a temporary
] restraining order barring Glaser from marketing his
] software. But a judge declined to grant an injunction,
] saying that Foundstone had not identified the trade
] secret and was unlikely to prevail on the merits.
]
] Things quickly went from bad to worse. Soon after the
] case was filed, Jason Glassberg, Foundstone's
] software-consulting guru and its key contact with
] Microsoft, the company's largest client, sent an e-mail
] to Kurtz. "This is bullshit," he wrote. "We will regret
] the day we became a litigious company. You realize you
] have zero support from the rest of the company on this
] action, don't you?"
]
] Kurtz promptly fired Glassberg, who was immediately
] offered work by Microsoft. The software giant then
] yanked its Foundstone business, which had accounted for
] about a quarter of the company's revenue. More staff
] defections followed.

Rule #1: Don't fuck with your employees.

Fortune.com - Technology - The Two Faces of Foundstone