Mergers & Acquisitions on Ulitzer

A New York appeals court said the other day that David Johnson, the ex-IBM M&A chief poached by Dell in May and sued by IBM to make him honor his non-compete - which he intentionally signed in the wrong place to get out from under - can work for Dell.

The courts weren't happy with IBM.

The district court that was asked for an injunction called IBM's tactics "vexatious" and "a great disservice to the interests of Mr. Johnson and of the court in the orderly conduct of this litigation."

The appeals court found IBM's case "a waste of judicial resources" and said it presented "no arguably meritorious issue for our consideration." On top of which IBM's witness "lacked familiarity with documents bearing on the controversy."

Johnson's now officially Dell's senior VP of corporate strategy or what Dell decides to call him.