Apple chief executive Tim Cook, Google chairman Eric Schmidt and Intel head Paul Otellini are expected to be questioned in a U.S. court over allegedly agreeing to a “no poaching” agreement that bars these and some other companies from hiring talented people working in these companies.
Recently, the court saw an email written by former Apple chief Steve Jobs asking Schmidt not to hire one of his employees. Those who have filed the petition are of the view that talent should not be suppressed and workers must be allowed to join any company as per their wish.
U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh has reportedly given permission to question these heads about the agreement. Although Apple present chief Cook was not running the affairs when Jobs sent that email, it is assumed that Cook had knowledge of all these developments.
According to CNET, Jobs wrote in an email to Schmidt in March 2007:
“I would be very pleased if your recruiting department would stop doing this.”
Jobs was referring to the attempts of hiring one of Apple’s engineer by Google. After receiving that mail, Schmidt sent an internal mail, saying:
“I believe we have a policy of no recruiting from Apple and this is a direct inbound request. Can you get this stopped and let me know why this is happening? I will need to send a response back to Apple quickly so please let me know as soon as you can.”
The recruiter who had attempted to hire the engineer from Apple was fired immediately after this development, while Google’s staffing director also extended apologies.
These emails were repeatedly discussed during the last hearings. More information regarding this case is expected to surface within the next few days.
Photo: wirtschaft
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