Storage expert David Donatelli, who was running EMC's $6.3 billion storage division a few weeks ago, has been cleared to work at rival Hewlett-Packard, but he can't go near HP's storage operation, according to a new court decision on his employment status.

A Massachusetts court has cleared Donatelli to work at HP with the proviso that he avoid for one year working at any HP unit that competes with EMC. HP said Donatelli will serve as executive VP of enterprise servers and networking and will report to Ann Livermore, executive VP of HP's technology solutions group.

HP said Dave Robinson, senior VP and general manager of its StorageWorks division, also will report directly to Livermore. In a statement, the company said: "HP is pleased with the court's recent decision and looks forward to the contributions Donatelli will make to HP's business."

EMC said it was satisfied with the Massachusetts ruling by Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Stephen Neel.

The two companies are increasingly competing with each other as storage colossus EMC teams up with Cisco in the server and data center market and as HP beefs up its storage and data center efforts.

Donatelli, who joined EMC as employee No. 129 in 1987, stunned EMC when he decided to join HP in late April. Considered by some as a likely candidate to succeed EMC chief executive Joe Tucci, Donatelli went to a California court to dispute the noncompete contract he had at EMC. For now, the Massachusetts ruling takes precedence over the California proceeding.

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