By Drew FitzGerald
CA Inc. (CA) on Monday sued a software company founded by one of
its former employees for allegedly infringing three of its
patents.
The Islandia, N.Y. company accused privately held New Relic Inc.
of reusing the some of the intellectual property CA acquired
through its 2006 purchase of Wily Technology. Wily founder Lew
Cirne joined CA through the acquisition and remained an employee
until 2007. He started New Relic in San Francisco in 2008.
A New Relic spokeswoman said the company had no immediate
comment about the lawsuit, which CA filed in the U.S. district
court for Eastern New York.
Both companies offer tools for application-performance
management, a software niche that allows information-technology
managers to track how well programs are working throughout their
business. CA Chief Executive Bill McCracken last month said a
slowing application-performance business was partly to blame for
second-quarter revenue that missed analysts' expectations.
CA shares were recently up 7 cents at $23.04 Monday. The stock
is down 9.5% over the past month.
Write to Drew FitzGerald at andrew.fitzgerald@dowjones.com.
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