• Adobe and
Intel were also faced with court case
• Lawyers
had sought $9bn over alleged collusion
theguardian.com,
Dominic Rushe in New York, Thursday 24 April 2014
 |
| Apple was one of four companies scheduled to go to trial in May. Photograph: Michaela Rehle/Reuters |
Technology
companies including Apple and Google on Thursday agreed to settle an
embarrassing antitrust lawsuit that exposed the dark side of Silicon Valley’s
hiring practices and alleged some of its biggest names colluded in order to
avoid poaching each other's talent.
Apple,
Adobe, Google and Intel had been scheduled to go to trial at the end of May,
with lawyers for roughly 64,000 workers alleging that bosses including Google’s
Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt and Apple's Steve Jobs orchestrated an elaborate
scheme to prevent poaching and drive down wages.
The
companies had acknowledged that they agreed not to hire each other's staff in
some cases, but disputed the allegation that they conspired to drive down
wages.
In 2010, a
Justice Department investigation concluded that several companies shared
confidential salary information to prevent bidding wars and promised not to
call each other's staff. After the companies settled the federal antitrust
complaint, the four tech giants became the target of a civil lawsuit.
Lawyers had
been seeking $3bn in damages. Under antitrust rules, that could have been
tripled to $9bn had the companies lost. The terms of the settlement will be
presented by 27 May to US district judge Lucy Koh.
The
settlement was confirmed by Kelly Dermody, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at Lieff
Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein.
"This
is an excellent resolution of the case that will benefit class members,"
she said in a statement.
Emails from
Jobs and Schmidt emerged in pre-trial hearings. In one example, Schmidt told
Jobs that a Google recruiter would be fired after approaching an Apple
employee. Jobs forwarded Schmidt's note to a top Apple human resources
executive, with a smiley face.
In another
2005 email exchange, Jobs reportedly told Google co-founder Brin: "If you
hire a single one of these people, that means war."
Lawyers for
the companies accused the plaintiffs of “free-floating character assassination”
and asked that the emails be barred from entry at the trial.
Walt
Disney's Lucasfilm and Pixar – previously headed by Jobs – and the software
company Intuit agreed to a settlement over the same hiring practice allegations
last July, with Disney paying about $9m and Intuit $11m.
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