Stellantis offers worker buyouts

Stellantis, owner of the Jeep and Ram brands, is offering buyouts to an undisclosed number of salaried employees in the US, the company said Friday.

The company declined to say how many workers received an offer or how many have accepted a buyout.

Employees have until Dec. 5 to decide. Stellantis currently has 13,000 U.S. employees in its salaried workforce.

The voluntary offer is being made to employees 55 and older who’ve been with the company at least 10 years, as well as those with 30 years of service and a pension, Stellantis said.

Federal jury rules against Ford

A federal jury this week ordered Ford Motor Co. to pay nearly $105 million in damages to a Texas-based software company for breaching its contract and misappropriating trade secrets.

It dates back to 2015 and involves a dispute between Ford and Versata over software used in the vehicle development process.

In a lawsuit, Versata alleged that Ford stole trade secrets by developing its own software based on software it had used under a licensing contract with Versata.

The case went to trial, and on Wednesday a jury returned its finding that Ford must pay damages to Versata.

The jury determined that Ford breached its contract with Versata by “misusing and disclosing confidential information” and reverse engineering Versata’s software for its own commercial use, while finding that Versata did not breach its contract with Ford, according to a verdict form.

From wire reports