Re: 4/11/01 - [ASHW] Seattle Times: Settlement in chat-room suit includes an apology
Business & Technology : Wednesday, April 11, 2001
Settlement in chat-room suit includes an apology
By Robert T. Nelson
Seattle Times business reporter
A vice president at the Seattle-based golf- and leisure-apparel company Cutter & Buck has apologized to Ashworth, one of its competitors, for making disparaging and untrue statements over two years on a Yahoo! message board.
"Between 1998 and 2000, under the name 'goattrail,' I posted a number of messages on this board without revealing that I am Andrew Hilton, vice president and national corporate-sales manager of Cutter & Buck," Hilton wrote in an apology that appeared on the Yahoo! Web site Friday.
"My messages were unfairly negative, and I regret that I posted these messages about one of Cutter & Buck's competitors. I posted the messages without knowledge or approval of Cutter & Buck."
Hilton's apology was one of the terms of a confidential settlement that cleared the way for yesterday's dismissal of a lawsuit California-based Ashworth filed against Cutter & Buck in August in San Diego.
In that suit, Ashworth accused Hilton of posing as a stockholder and posting untrue statements on a Yahoo! chat-room site.
Among the false statements Hilton made was that Ashworth was losing high-end golf accounts and replacing them with sales to discount stores such as Costco, Marshalls and Ross.
Ashworth officials subpoenaed Yahoo! records and tracked the postings to Hilton's office computer. Ashworth claimed Hilton had acted on behalf of other Cutter & Buck executives.
Harvey Jones, Cutter & Buck's chairman and chief executive officer, at the time denied the accusation and called the lawsuit "unfounded."
Yesterday, Martin Marks, Cutter & Buck's president and chief operating officer, declined to discuss details of the settlement or what, if any, disciplinary action will be taken against Hilton, who is out of the office this week.
Ashworth and Cutter & Buck are bitter rivals in the highly competitive golf-apparel industry. Both make high-end clothing that is sold almost exclusively through golf-course pro shops and a few select retail outlets.
The two companies say the cachet of their labels is damaged by sales through discount stores, though their merchandise routinely finds its way into such outlets through diversion, they say.
Copyright © 2001 The Seattle Times Company
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