Dive Brief:

• Amazon reached an agreement Thursday with the former employee it accused of violating a non-compete agreement, according to Geekwire. Amazon sought to prevent Gene Farrell, former Vice President at Amazon Web Services, from working at Smartsheet.

• Amazon released a statement indicating that it reached an agreement with Smartsheet that "placed temporary restrictions on the scope of Gene's role at Smartsheet consistent with his agreement with Amazon." The two sides did not provide further details.
   

• Earlier this month, a judge ordered a temporary order in Washington's King County Superior Court restricting Farrell from working for Smartsheet.

Dive Insight:

Farrell is not the first AWS employee to go work for a competitor. Yet AWS has only taken action on a few of those employees over the years. The sticking point for AWS is that Smartsheet makes online collaborative tools, and Farrell was previously the head of AWS' workplace tools division. Often companies go to these lengths to protect possible infringement of new products. 

Talk persists about a potential Amazon collaboration tool. More recently, stories indicate AWS may be in the market to buy Slack. It seems clear the company is looking to gain deeper penetration into the enterprise market to help ensure its long-term growth beyond cloud, what those actions will look like is not as clear.