Apple, Google agree to settle lawsuit alleging hiring conspiracy

[Newsjock]

Source: Reuters

Four major tech companies including Apple and Google have agreed to settle a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to hold down salaries in Silicon Valley, just weeks before a high profile trial had been scheduled to begin.

The settlement was disclosed in a court filing on Thursday, which did not spell out terms. The case has been closely watched due to the potentially high damages award and a steady disclosure of emails in which Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and some of their Silicon Valley rivals hatched plans to avoid poaching each other's prized engineers.

Tech workers filed a class action lawsuit against Apple Inc, Google Inc, Intel Inc and Adobe Systems Inc in 2011, alleging they conspired to refrain from soliciting one another's employees in order to avert a salary war. Trial had been scheduled to begin at the end of May on behalf of roughly 64,000 workers in the class.

... Any settlement must be approved by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California. A hearing on final approval of the Intuit and Disney deals is scheduled for next week.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/24/us-apple-google-settlement-idUSBREA3N1Y120140424

[joeglow3]

1. Not uncommon

Every manager for the Big Four firms here has to sign a non-compete, even though it is a right-to-work state. Partners in the firms have admitted that they have zero legal weight, but that they respect the other firms because they want theirs to be respected. Should file a lawsuit here.

[closeupready]

2. Professional courtesy.

Sure, that's true of nearly every industry.

[Control-Z]

3. We're talking about California

here, right? California is not a right-to-work state, last I checked.

[joeglow3]

4. My state is nebraska.