Damning Evidence Emerges In Google-Apple 'No Poach' Antitrust Lawsuit

TechCrunch:

Next week a class-action civil lawsuit will be heard in San Jose to determine if Google, Apple, Pixar, Lucasfilm, Adobe, Intel, and Intuit conspired to eliminate competition for skilled labor. In anticipation of the hearing, TechCrunch has obtained evidence from the Department of Justice's investigation in 2010 which was made public this evening for the first time. It appears to support the plaintiff's case that the defendant companies tried to suppress employee compensation by entering into "no poach" agreements.

Read the whole story: TechCrunch

Comments

[jflorish]

12:23 PM on 01/22/2012

They could just plant an employee in another company as a new hire to pass information, its basically what China is doing with the chinese guy that stole all the source code from the Fed.

[jflorish]

12:22 PM on 01/22/2012

I'm not sure about that because these companies aren't "buddy buddy", they are all in competition against each other and if they can steal employees I think they would. The information and designs that can be gained is hugely valueable.

[AJH]

02:04 PM on 01/21/2012

Meanwhile more H1-B visa's so we can further hold their wages down.

[Jarhead Vet]

01:25 PM on 01/21/2012

Nobody cares.

Just as long as you can have your iPhone and iTunes right?

[Mydian01]

09:32 PM on 01/22/2012

or their photoshops and their gmails and their windows and their androids.

[Luke008]

01:09 PM on 01/21/2012

Only cool aid drinking Liberals need to be disabused of the notion that Liberal corp leaders are any less greedy and underhanded than other corp and union leaders. Only the UAW would have the chutzpa to talk about their fight for middle class pay and benefits when they recently signed auto worker contracts that give double the hourly wage to the union members that helped to bankrupt the auto companies as opposed to the paltry $15 for new hires.

[Jarhead Vet]

01:25 PM on 01/21/2012

You should stick with watching Fixt Noise and worshiping Hanity... You seem to be good at it.

Acknowledging the facts and having the ability to count... Not so much...

No one is interested in listening to you bully imaginary people anymore. Take your fear and cowardice back to those who wallow in it.

[Mr MOTO]

03:35 PM on 01/21/2012

The very site on which you are commenting had a foundation of unpaid bloggers to the point to which the liberal founder was able to sell it for $315 MILLION.

[AJH]

02:10 PM on 01/21/2012

I have known for a long time tech corporations when it comes to economic/business policy are no different from wall street. The fact their CEO is willing to support verbally environmental policy does not make them liberal. The basic fact is Democratic foreign policy has long had an asia emphasis that suits these corporations offshoring ambitions.

When your plan is to have your industrial operations abroad with only white collar engineering labor at home that is high cost everywhere. It's easy to act liberal.

[Roy l Payne]

12:54 PM on 01/21/2012

An example of why the labor movement was SO important. Without a collective of workers coming together to negotiate against powerful law firms hired to keep workers trapped and scared, the collusion of mega-rich CEO's and companies will continue to devalue the labor of Americans to compete with the labor of 3rd world countries that have a "jack-boot" on the neck of their workers.

The underlying goal of multi-national corporations is to make this a fiefdom and it is a 24/7 effort on the side of the corporate-fa.cis.t movement to make this nation a economic slave nation.

[Patriot86]

11:24 AM on 01/21/2012

So much for free market...such li_ars and hypocrites.

[Mr MOTO]

11:22 AM on 01/21/2012

This was an attempt by California companies to get around the fact that California does not recognize Non-Competes. The problem here is that there is the 'spirit of the law' and the 'letter of law'. The spirit of the law is fair in that if you go to a competitor, you cannot take proprietary information, e.g. clients, code et al. It actually began with partner lawyers who wanted to go start their own firms and would take their clients with them. But it has morphed into the letter of law.

I actually read one that said the signator could not work for a client of the company. Trane (the air conditioning manufacturing firm) was a client, so LEGALLY one could not intall air conditioning units for Trane although the original employer was a software company. I saw another one that said that any 'invention' or 'idea' whether on or off company time and equipment belonged to the company. So, TECHNICALLY, that new cookie recipe could commendeered.

All of that said, I have been watching this unfolded with these particular companies for a couple of years. As a head hunter, I don't particularly like Non-Competes. Slapping these companies with a couple of dollar fine most likely will not change much BUT it will re-instill 'fair market' principles.

[TheSocialCapitalist]

10:57 AM on 01/21/2012

How is this not front page news?!

[bring in swat]

12:20 PM on 01/21/2012

it says Apple

[Mydian01]

09:33 PM on 01/22/2012

it says Google.

[Fit2betied]

10:41 AM on 01/21/2012

This practice probably occurs throughout the business world, but since these companies were foolish enough document their illegal activities for all the world to see they should be made to pay fines large enough that board of directors fire people.

I have worked for companies who had verbal agreements like this with their competitors. Before these agreements were made it was common for me to get unsolicited job offers. Ahhh, the good times! Now most of these jobs are in Asia where employee retention seems to be an even bigger problem.

[Paulo1]

09:52 AM on 01/21/2012

I have a suspicious mind. Note that this is happening only a couple of short days after these tech industries helped derail the Freedom of Speech Power grab of PIPA/SOPA. I suspect that certain people are very upset that their curtailing of our free speech rights was derailed. Hence the release of this data at this time.

Yup, I am in a very conspiracy theory mode today. Unfortunately the pieces fit real nice.

[PerryLogan]

08:16 AM on 01/21/2012

No one hates competition more than capitalists do.

[rigslip]

07:58 AM on 01/21/2012

Apple, another great "American" company that has about 500,000 employees in China and less than 15,000 (mostly store clerks) here in the US

[nhfarmer]

08:36 AM on 01/21/2012

mic check! MIC CHECK! "I occupy because I am unemployed because of: non-compete clauses, non-disclosure agreements, patents on my inventions that I cannot practice, and non-poaching agreements between all of my potential employers."
mic check! MIC CHECKI "I occupy because I want to stop communists from taking over the corporations!"

[Napoleon3]

11:03 AM on 01/21/2012

That is your fault for not wanting to pay $2000 for your iPhone.

[RobJames]

12:58 AM on 01/23/2012

You already due with the 2yr contracts they make you purchase.

[therainisgone]

07:57 AM on 01/21/2012

what ?--------- the job creators abusing their workers ? cant be ,they are paragons of virtue

[therainisgone]

07:53 AM on 01/21/2012

it is price fixing on the cost side ------fixing cost of labor

big oil does it on the revenue side