CesiumAstro alleges in a recently filed lawsuit that a former executive disclosed trade secrets and confidential information about sensitive technology, investors and customers to a competing startup.
Austin-based Cesium develops software-defined radio systems and active phase arrays for spacecraft, missiles and drones. While phased array antenna systems have been used on satellites for decades, Cesium has significantly advanced and produced the technology during its seven years of operation. The startup has raised more than $100 million in government and venture funding, which it has used to develop a suite of products for commercial and defense customers.
The technology is niche: only a handful of companies are working on the cutting edge of space-based radio technology, and Cesium certainly pays close attention to any new entrants in the field. AnySignal, a startup that came out of nowhere last October but was formally incorporated in 2022, certainly caught the company’s attention, not least because it reportedly outbid Cesium in a sales offer to a major client and in attempting to solicit interest. from one of Cesium’s first investors, both examples mentioned in the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, filed on March 25, these examples are directly related to former Vice President of Product Erik Luther’s misappropriation of trade secrets and confidential information about investors and customers, which Cesium alleges he subsequently disclosed to AnySignal. Notably, Luther did not leave Cesium to work for AnySignal, but instead took on the role of head of marketing at a company operating in a completely different sector. But the lawsuit says Luther maintained “personal connections” with AnySignal’s co-founders, having previously worked with AnySignal CEO John Malsbury at a different company.
This resulted in AnySignal “recruiting and inducing Luther… to improperly disclose” confidential and trade secret information, the lawsuit says. The CEO of AnySignal and CesiumAstro did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment; An attorney representing Luther referred TechCrunch to the March 29 legal documents cited below.
Cesium is clear in its position in the lawsuit: It does not believe AnySignal could have developed its complex radio technology on its schedule and with its existing resources, “without CesiumAstro’s technical diagrams and specifications (to which Luther had access).”
“With just a few employees and $5 million in investor funding, [AnySignal] “It would not even be in the same orbit as CesiumAstro, which has spent tens of millions of dollars working with (now) 170 employees over seven years to develop its technologies,” the lawsuit says. “But with Luther’s help, AnySignal launched itself into direct competition with CesiumAstro in the specialized software-defined radio space.”
Luther strongly denied all allegations in two separate documents filed with the court on March 29; Regarding the claim that he worked in conjunction with AnySignal, he says the allegation “is not only false… but was made up out of thin air.” (The response also denies Cesium’s claim that he is an “industry leader.”)
Cesium “does not cite any facts or evidence linking Luther and any of AnySignal’s business efforts and the alleged evidence that [Cesium] quote does not support [its] arguments,” Luther’s lawyer states in the file. He goes on to say that Cesium makes a “Grand Canyon-sized leap from the insignificant and easily explainable evidence it cites to the notable allegation that Luther has been secretly helping AnySignal and feeding them. [Cesium’s] trade secrets without citing any evidence.”
El Segundo-based AnySignal was founded in May 2022 by Malsbury and COO Jeffrey Osborne, and emerged by stealth touting $5 million in seed funding last year. The company is developing a software-defined radio platform; Cesium’s lawsuit calls it a “direct competitor.” In February, a month before the lawsuit was filed, AnySignal announced that it had partnered with private space station developer Vast for an advanced communications system for Vast’s flagship station, Haven-1.
The lawsuit was filed in the Western District of Texas under no. 1:24-cv-314.