Texas billionaire Ross Perot didn't waste any time Friday jumping into competition with his former company, Electronic Data Systems Corp., after a three-year non-compete court order expired.
Perot said his Perot Systems Inc. salespeople were "out knocking on doors" early Friday."If I've got anybody not out bidding for business for profit today, then I've got to send them back to training," he said.
Perot and EDS have been battling each other since 1986, when Perot parted ways with General Motors Corp. Perot had sold EDS to GM in 1984.
EDS spokesman Roger Still said, "I would expect (Perot) to say that. . . . Nothing has changed from our standpoint. We'll deal with them in the marketplace as we would any competitor."
Perot formed Perot Systems, based in Vienna, Va., in mid-1988, after GM paid the outspoken businessman an additional $700 million for his GM stock and removed him from its board of directors.
As part of the deal, Perot agreed not to compete with EDS for profit until Dec. 1, 1989. EDS has complained that Perot violated that agreement.
GM sued Perot and Perot Systems, alleging a deal struck between Perot Systems and the U.S. Postal Service violated the non-compete clause.
Perot says his company, which provides computing service under contract, wasn't making a profit, so it didn't violate the agreement.
In April, Fairfax County, Va., Circuit Judge William Plummer ruled that Perot Systems couldn't compete on a for-profit basis with EDS until Dec. 1, 1989.
On Dec. 16, 1988, the Postal Service canceled the contract. Since then, Perot Systems has grown from 22 employees to 448.
"We are delighted to reach this point," Perot said. "In retrospect, my feeling for General Motors has to be one of gratitude . . .. If they had not interfered with the postal contract, today I would have a very small number of people working for me.
"Today I have . . . a diversified base of federal business, with a blue chip, blue ribbon list of clients," Perot said. "And we got all that business (because) people would read about GM taking us to court and realize we were in business again."