Tech workers filed a class action lawsuit against Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe in 2011, alleging they conspired to refrain from soliciting one another's employees in order to avert a salary war. They planned to ask for $US3 billion in damages at trial, according to court filings. That could have tripled to $US9 billion under antitrust law.
Tech workers filed a class action lawsuit against Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe in 2011, alleging they conspired to refrain from soliciting one another's employees in order to avert a salary war. They planned to ask for $US3 billion in damages at trial, according to court filings. That could have tripled to $US9 billion under antitrust law.
The case has been closely watched due to the potentially high damages award and the opportunity to peek into the world of Silicon Valley's elite. The case was based largely on emails in which Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs, former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt and some of their Silicon Valley rivals hatched plans to avoid poaching each other's prized engineers.
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In one email exchange after a Google recruiter solicited an Apple employee, Schmidt told Jobs that the recruiter would be fired, court documents show. Jobs then forwarded Schmidt's note to a top Apple human resources executive with a smiley face.
Another exchange shows Google's human resources director asking Schmidt about sharing its no-cold call agreements with competitors. Schmidt, now the company's
