Sony Sues EMI Over Failed Deal With New North Amercian COO Ron Werre

  VS.

UPDATED (2): Sony Music is suing EMI alleging that executive Ron Werre had used them as a "stalking horse" to obtain his promotion last week to Chef Operating Officer of EMI North America and Mexico.

According to documents obtained by Hypebot, the lawsuit filed in the Supreme Court of The State of New York charges that on February 13th, Werre, who until recently served as EMI's head of music services,  had signed a 3 year deal to join Sony as the president of commercial music when his contract with EMI expired in March of 2010.  Sony filed the lawsuit on May 8th, less than 24 hours after Werre's EMI promotion was announced.

In the suit, Sony claims that it had terminated another executive based on Werre's acceptance, but that Werre "never intended to fulfill his contractual obligations to Sony Music, (he) was merely using his contract with Sony Music as a stalking horse to solicit a more lucrative contract from EMI with enhanced job responsibilities". Werre is also named a a co-defendant in the lawsuit.

PDF OF SONY VS. RON WERRE AND EMI COURT FILING