A former HP vice president has pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets from IBM and passing them to his new employers.

Atul Malhotra, a vice president of imaging and printing services at HP since 2006, admitted that he accessed and copied confidential information from his previous job as sales director at IBM Global Services.

Shortly after starting in his new job at HP Malhotra passed the secrets relating to IBM product costs and materials to two senior HP vice presidents in email messages with the subject line 'For Your Eyes Only - confidential'.

HP and IBM both cooperated fully with the investigation.

Malhotra faces a maximum 10 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and a three-year term of supervised release.

Sentencing has been set for 29 October by US District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel, who accepted the plea at the federal courthouse in San José, California.