Tony Aquila is suing the company he founded and led over a stack of stock options worth more than $100 million.
Aquila earlier this month sued Westlake-based Solera Holdings in Delaware state court after he said he resigned from the company, according to a statement.
Solera has breached a separation deal and refuses to honor its obligations to pay Aquila for his vested stock options worth in excess of $100 million, the statement said.
The separation agreement was made in 2016 when Vista Equity Partners took a controlling stake in the company, according to the statement.
The statement said the private equity company failed to deliver on promises to Solera and Aquila and impaired the company’s growth and value-creation because it was over-leveraged. Aquila made an offer to buy back the company, but that was rebuffed, leading to his decision to leave the company, it said.
Aquila is asking the Delaware state court to order Solera to follow the separation agreement and “restrain Solera from improperly repurchasing Aquila’s vested stock options,” the complaint said, according to the statement.
According to the lawsuit, in July 2019, Solera said that Aquila’s continued employment of a former Solera employee breached the employment agreement under a non-solicitation of employees clause, the statement said. But the lawsuit said the employee had been working for Aquila’s “Adventure Motors,” a company that is designed to “fix up” classic cars. It is not a competitor to Solera, it said, and the worker was already employed with Solera’s consent.
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