- In a response to today's rulings in its trade-secrets case against Zillow, Move Inc. (NASDAQ:NWS, NWSA) says it's pleased with the actions and is looking forward to presenting evidence to a jury June 6.
- That, despite the fact that the company would have preferred a more declaratory judgment to end the case in its favor.
- The judge allowed an instruction that allows the jury to infer that destroyed evidence could have helped Move's case, or hurt Zillow's. Curt Beardsley -- who left Move along with Errol Samuelson for Zillow -- had testified that he had erased files from Zillow computers to cover up viewing of pornography, in what Zillow chief Spencer Rascoff called a "knucklehead" move.
- "This important ruling validates our claim that one of Zillow's top executives, Curt Beardsley, acted with 'willfulness and bad faith' in destroying evidence, and his actions have 'prejudiced plaintiffs' ability to prosecute their case,' " Move says. It adds that the case has cost Zillow more than $40M, "making the two poached executives among the most expensive in corporate history."
- Meanwhile, Zillow (Z), which declined as much 6.6% in the ruling's aftermath, recovered quickly to close up 2.8% on the day, and has added another 0.8% in gains after hours.
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Updated 7:25 p.m.: Zillow looks forward to the trial as well: "We applaud the Court’s decision with respect to Zillow and Errol Samuelson, which validates what we already knew: that during the pre-trial hearing, News Corp did not offer evidence that Zillow or Errol did anything wrong or that the we failed to live up to our obligations in this case. ... Ultimately this comes down to News Corp. trying to win in the courts, since they aren’t winning in the court of consumer opinion."
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