Wei Zhu’s lawsuit against Grab will probably fizzle out before it can blow up

Photo credit: left his CTO position at Grab (then GrabTaxi) last year, it was a bit of a shock. After all, he had been a high-profile hire for a company trying to ramp up its efforts to conquer the region.

At the time he was hired, Wei said, “I am convinced that working [at Grab] will allow me to expand my horizons, work on interesting technical challenges, and potentially change the world the way Facebook did.”

Depending on how ugly things get, some sensitive information could spill out.

A few months later, those aspirations didn’t seem to be enough for him to stay put. “It is time for me to move on to explore new adventures in life. I would like to thank our founder Anthony Tan and the team of passionate and amazing fellow Grabbers for sharing this ride of a lifetime!” he wrote on Facebook in August, in a post now deleted or hidden.

What’s even more of a shock, though, is the way he reappeared in the public eye – by suing Grab for allegedly failing to give him the stock promised when it hired him. According to a report today by Singapore’s The Straits Times, Wei claims he is owed US$2.3 million in shares.

Now, it should be mentioned that this is more of a shock because of how out of the norm it is. People sue each other all the time, especially in the business world, which is part of what makes a law degree such a good investment. But we rarely see a former employee of a venture-backed startup go up against their former employer in quite so public a fashion.

Friends no more

A hearing on Wei’s lawsuit is expected in Singapore’s High Court next week, but an actual court battle is probably not what either of the parties want here. These cases tend to stretch into prolonged confrontations as facts are reviewed and testimonies are heard.

Photo credit: Wei Zhu/Facebook.

That, in turn, racks up the legal fees. Anthony Tan and Wei might both have money to burn on this to prove a point and defend their claims, but is either of them really willing to commit to an all-out court battle? While it will certainly be a costly affair for Wei, Grab especially is likely to want to keep the spending to a minimum here – it’s not the best use for all its hard-earned VC funds.

Another problem: depending on the case and how ugly things get, information that the parties might not want exposed could become public. Again, that probably goes more for Grab here than Wei. Confidential contract terms and employment practices, non-disclosure agreements, even financial information that venture-backed companies usually try their utmost to keep under wraps, could wind up on public record.

All that doesn’t even take into account a possible defeat for Grab and the precedent it might set.

Obviously, it’s possible that none of the above will happen and the case will be clear-cut and resolved in a jiff. But there’s no guarantee of that. It’s likelier that both parties will decide to settle out of court and lay this whole thing to rest without further bloodletting.

In which case, the most fascinating thing about this case remains the fact that a startup employee is going against its former employer in such a spectacular way.