Yeah, "Zenefits has officially filed its legal response to a defamation lawsuit filed against it by ADP. And the legal move was brilliant."

I don't think most companies would have the guts to issue a press a release as skewed and laudatory as the article.

The Zenefits business model is to sit between ADP customers and ADP and provide it's interface to the customers data stored with ADP - all without asking ADP for permission or using an actual API. It bears some resemblance to the Craigslist scraper's business model and also to Aaron Swartz's activities. While I wouldn't expect Zenefits to go to jail over their activities, it's pretty well established that a company can say "hey, you can't make a continuing practice of using our data in a way we don't want".

I have no dog in this fight but have to agree, it failed to get a quote from ADP or at least a "requests for a comment from ADP went unanswered" type thing, much less a neutral third party.

I think regardless of which side turns out to be "right", this fight is an interesting case study in the tone of press coverage/sentiment that a traditional large company receives versus that of a startup. And damned if the Zenefits guy doesn't know it, trying to elicit a comparison of themselves to better known startups such as Uber and Tesla.

The author, Julie Bort, seems to love Zenefits. She has written several articles that heap praise on the company and the founder, Parker Conrad. She has also tweeted comments that could be perceived as biased toward Conrad.

I wonder why?