21st Century Fox sues Netflix over executive poaching

Call it the new front line in the streaming battles: the poaching of executives. 21st Century Fox on Friday filed a lawsuit against Netflix, accusing the streaming video giant of illegally recruiting two of its executives who were under contract. The suit, which was filed Friday in California Superior Court in Los Angeles, says Netflix engaged in a “brazen campaign to unlawfully target, recruit, and poach valuable Fox executives by illegally inducing them to break their employment contracts with Fox to work at Netflix.” In a tight-knit industry where there is a of lot back-and-forth hiring, it’s unusual for a Hollywood studio to file a suit over executive poaching. The lawsuit was sparked following the exits of two Fox executives: Marcos Waltenberg, who made the jump to Netflix earlier this year, previously worked as a marketing executive at Twentieth Century Fox Film; Tara Flynn, who made the move to Netflix just last week, had been the vice president of creative affairs at Fox 21 TV Studios. Aside from Waltenberg and Flynn, an additional 19 Fox executives without contracts have also joined Netflix over the last two years, said a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment.