My company sold to another am I still bound
I signed a noncompete with my company. They where based in South Carolina and I was a remote employee with a home office in Arizona. I reported to another Arizona remote employee. My company was privately held and was sold to a public company. The new company did not have me sign a new noncompete. I got offered a better job in the same field with another company that competes with my employeer. Am I bound by my old companies noncompete agreement.
1 answer | asked May 5, 2004 10:46 AM [EST] | applies to Arizona
Answers (1)
Sale of company doesn't negate non-compete
The answer to your question depends on the nature of the sale of the business. If you were required to reapply for your job as a result of the sale, you can use this as an argument that the old relationship ended and a new one began with the new owner. But if the new owner kept you on as if nothing had changed, it probably bought all of the old company, including assets such as your non-compete agreement. Whether the agreement is enforceable also depends on how it is written. Non-compete agreements are often too restrictive to be enforced by the courts. In Arizona a non-compete agreement will be enforced if it is necessary to protect legitimate interests of a business, but it must be reasonably limited in its duration and geographic scope. You should probably have an attorney review the agreement if you have any doubts about its enforceability. Unfortunately, the courts' treatment of these agreements can be difficult to predict, and sometimes judges themselves disagree on whether a particular agreement should be enforced.
posted by Francis Fanning | May 6, 2004 12:01 PM [EST]
The answer to your question depends on the nature of the sale of the business. If you were required to reapply for your job as a result of the sale, you can use this as an argument that the old relationship ended and a new one began with the new owner. But if the new owner kept you on as if nothing had changed, it probably bought all of the old company, including assets such as your non-compete agreement. Whether the agreement is enforceable also depends on how it is written. Non-compete agreements are often too restrictive to be enforced by the courts. In Arizona a non-compete agreement will be enforced if it is necessary to protect legitimate interests of a business, but it must be reasonably limited in its duration and geographic scope. You should probably have an attorney review the agreement if you have any doubts about its enforceability. Unfortunately, the courts' treatment of these agreements can be difficult to predict, and sometimes judges themselves disagree on whether a particular agreement should be enforced.
posted by Francis Fanning | May 6, 2004 12:01 PM [EST]
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