Former boss sues Baltimore

A BITTER row has broken out between Baltimore Technologies and its former chief executive Fran Rooney, who claims the software group's new management has bad-mouthed him all over town. Rooney, who quit Baltimore in July following a collapse in its share price, said new chief executive Bijan Khezri has attacked his performance as head of the company in a series of remarks made to journalists.

Rooney is suing Baltimore for damages over the comments, saying they are in breach of the agreement he struck with Baltimore when he left.

Baltimore's value soared to £5.1bn under Rooney, making the company a FTSE 100 high-flyer during the peak of the boom in technology shares, but is now worth only £97m.

Rooney claims Khezri said there was a 'vacuum of leadership' during Rooney's time at the helm and told journalists that Rooney was 'almost like a university professor walking in and saying this would be a great job if there were not any students'.

'His (Rooney's) attitude was like it would be a great business if we hadn't had all these stupid customers to worry about,' Khezri is alleged to have said. 'Baltimore confused the market and this confusion in the market was probably a mirror picture of confusion in Baltimore itself.'

Khezri is also said to have described Baltimore during Rooney's time as being obsessed with growing its revenues but continued to buy companies, 'even if they did not make perfect sense individually'. Khezri told journalists Rooney's £450,000 annual salary was 'outrageous and unacceptable', saying £150,000 is as much as a chief executive of a company such as Baltimore should be paid.

Khezri, who is paid £150,000 a year, was a Baltimore director until he resigned in May 2000. He returned to the company in July this year and became chief executive in October.

Rooney claims Khezri told journalists that 'serious mistakes' were made at Baltimore and that there were far too many employees who lacked a clear purpose and defined performance criteria. 'There was a total absence of customer focus,' he is alleged to have said.

Rooney is demanding unspecified damages and a public apology from Baltimore. Baltimore said it would defend the action.