on the other hand, (ii) hire (or other similar arrangement) any Person (in any capacity whether as an officer, director, employee or consultant) who is or at any time was an officer, director or employee of the Company Group until six (6) months after such individual’s relationship (whether as an officer, director or employee) with the Company Group has ended, or (iii) induce or attempt to induce any customer, supplier, prospect, licensee or other business relation of the Company Group to cease doing business with the Company Group, or in any way interfere with the relationship between any such customer, supplier, prospect, licensee or business relation, on the one hand, and the Company Group, on the other hand.
(b) Non-Competition. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law and to further preserve the confidentiality of the Company Group’s confidential information, the Optionee agrees that during the Optionee’s employment or other service relationship with the Company Group, and for the one (1) year period following the Optionee’s Termination of Relationship for any reason, the Optionee will not, directly or indirectly, have any equity or equity-based interest, or work or otherwise provide services as an employee, contractor, officer, owner, consultant, partner, director or otherwise, in any business anywhere in the world that sells managed dedicated or cloud computing services substantially similar to those services provided by the Company Group, including but not limited to (i) professional advisory services for the migration, deployment or management of cloud technologies; (ii) provisioning, hosting, management, monitoring, supporting, or maintenance of applications, computer servers (whether dedicated, shared or virtual) and network connectivity in a datacenter for remote use via the Internet; (iii) hosted or managed email, storage, collaboration, compute, virtual networking, applications, and similar services, or (iv) any related IT services or products substantially similar to the Company Group’s products or services. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Optionee shall be permitted to acquire a passive stock or equity interest in such a business, provided that the stock or other equity interest acquired is not more than five percent (5%) of the outstanding interest in such business.
(c) Nondisclosure of Confidential Information; Return of Property. The Optionee recognizes and acknowledges that he or she has access to the confidential information and/or has had material contact with the Company Group’s customers, suppliers, licensees, representatives, agents, partners, licensors, or business relations. The Optionee agrees that at any time during or after such time as the Optionee is a Participant in the Plan, the Optionee shall maintain in confidence and shall not directly, indirectly or otherwise, use, disseminate, disclose or publish, or use for the Optionee’s benefit or the benefit of any Person, any confidential or proprietary information or trade secrets of or relating to the Company Group, including, without limitation, information with respect to the Company Group’s operations, processes, products, inventions, business practices, finances, principals, vendors, suppliers, customers, potential customers, marketing methods, costs, prices, contractual relationships, regulatory status, compensation paid to employees or other terms of employment, or deliver to any Person any document, record, notebook, computer program or similar repository of or containing any such confidential or proprietary information or trade secrets. Upon the Optionee’s termination of employment for any reason, the Optionee shall promptly deliver to the Company (with the cost of shipping reimbursed by the Company) all correspondence, drawings, manuals, letters, notes, notebooks, reports, programs, plans, proposals, financial documents, or any other documents concerning the Company Group’s customers, business plans, marketing strategies, products or processes. The Optionee may respond to a lawful and valid subpoena or other legal process but shall give the
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