Tech Crunch v. Fusion Garage: Mike Speaks.

In early September, we reported on preliminary rulings on the lawsuit between TechCrunch and Fusion Garage. The court dismissed all the motions filed against Fusion Garage, except for the motion alleging breach of fiduciary duty. Michael Arrington finally broke his long silence on the lawsuit to release comments on the case and to release emails claiming to prove that Fusion Garage and McGrath/Power had “planned the entire blowup from beginning till end.”

What’s the law got to do with it?

The documents that Arrington attached were also sent to the court to bolster their lawsuit as evidence of Fusion Garage’s duplicity in their working relationship. For example, in an email between Fusion Garage and their PR company dated 16 November, the sections on how there is going to be “a massive blowup” when supposedly Arrington realises how “I [Chandra] have strung him along” were highlighted.

In response, both Fusion Garage and McGrath/Power issued statements claiming that Arrington had taken the emails out of context, and that there was no conspiracy. The email exchange existed exactly because the parties wanted to ensure their message was clear.

We don’t know how much weight the courts will give these emails as evidence, but it is puzzling that Arrington would want to release these to the public while the lawsuit is still under way. For one, it is the courts and not the public that will determine the outcome of the case. Besides, even without the counter-arguments from Chandra and Jonathon Bloom it isn’t entirely clear that the meaning Arrington inputed to the emails was what was intended.

We speculate that Arrington may have released this statement due to his frustration at the lawsuit thus far–the courts had dismissed most of his claims and had denied the application for Fusion Garage’s earnings from the JooJoo to be sequestered. This statement will not affect the outcome of the lawsuit, but it doesn’t mean Tech Crunch cannot try to affect how the public percieves Fusion Garage.

What next?

There is also speculation that Arrington may be laying the ground for a possible settlement. This looks unlikely, given Fusion Garage’s response; besides, while the legal battle may be expensive, a settlement may be taken as an admission of wrongdoing, which Fusion Garage has no incentive to admit to.

Watch this space while we await what happens next.

Image credit: John of Austin

For our previous coverage on Fusion Garage, and the CrunchPad/JooJoo saga, see: here, here, here, here, here, here,  here and here.