Cruising tech millionaire caught up in company stoush

Details revealed about a legal stoush involving a tech company founder who was caught attempting to flee Sydney’s lockdown to watch a rugby match in Queensland.

The tech millionaire fined for cruising into Queensland from Covid-ravaged Sydney on a super­yacht to watch a rugby match has been accused by his former employer of using con­fidential information to set up a competing business.

Melbourne video manufacturer Atomos co-founder Jeromy Young copped a $4135 fine from Queensland, a $1000 fine from NSW and community backlash after he travelled to Brisbane from Sydney to attend the Wallabies v France Test match.

Mr Young was forced into mandatory isolation after he chartered an $18,000 a day superyacht called Dreamtime with his personal assistant from Melbourne, and a skipper and an engineer from the Gold Coast.

It can now be revealed Mr Young was restrained by a federal court judge in 2010 from using information his business partner, Ian Overliese, retained after they both left Blackmagic Design and founded Atomos. Both sell cameras and audio visual gear.

In an apparent ongoing dispute between the companies, Mr Young in 2019 was critical about his relationship with Blackmagic Design chief executive Grant Petty. “After working there for a long time … there has been a lot of back and forth between customers about … animosity between the companies. When people treat each other not well, there is never good blood between them,” Mr Young told filmmaking news company CineD in an interview.

“But I am playing fair ... I want to win the grand final against the best teams and they are a formidable opposition; I think we can work together if they so choose.

“I don’t think that is going to happen in a hurry,” he said.

The beef between the companies appeared to ramp up when both tried to introduce similar types of video production formats. The Australian revealed in 2018 Mr Young had been working for years with tech giant Apple to support ProRes RAW, while Mr Petty’s company said it would release a Blackmagic RAW codec.

In reference to the latest news about the activities of Atomos' former CEO, Jeromy Young, we want to clarify that this...

Posted by Atomos on Tuesday, July 13, 2021

Chris Tait, Chairman, Jeromy Young, CEO and James Cody, CFO of Melbourne video tech firm Atomos. Picture David Geraghty

On the competition between the two companies, Mr Young likened his business partnerships with World War II allies that included the US, Britain and Soviet Russia who fought against Japan and Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany.

“I call it the allied forces. You can decide what the other one is,” he said about Blackmagic.

Mr Young and Mr Overliese were ordered to destroy information on a spreadsheet that included Blackmagic parts usage figures, prices and profit margins.

Mr Petty feared the pair used confidential information about Blackmagic to establish a competing business. He also alleged Mr Overliese stole a business opportunity from Blackmagic by developing a video capture card using that information, an alle­gation dismissed by the judge.

Ultimately, Mr Young was considered the recipient rather than originator of gaining the confidential information.

Blackmagic does not comment on Atomos. Mr Young also declined to comment.