Judge shoots down settlement in Apple, Google hiring collusion case

[unhappycamper]

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-judge-rejects-apple-google-hiring-collusion-settlement-20140808-story.html



Apple's Steve Jobs was reputedly one of the executives who reached agreements with other Silicon Valley companies not to poach each others' employees.

Judge shoots down settlement in Apple, Google hiring collusion case
By Chris O'Brien
8.8.2014

~snip~

A federal judge on Friday rejected a proposed settlement in a case involving Apple Inc. and Google Inc. in which they were accused of secretly agreeing not to hire each others' employees. The $324.5 million deal was part of a case that originally involved several of Silicon Valley's biggest companies.

The settlement was reached in a case that had already proved deeply embarrassing to the tech companies involved.

As the case moved toward a trial, the companies were forced to disclose emails from such bigwigs as Apple's Steve Jobs and Google's former chief executive Eric Schmidt that seemed to indicate they secretly agreed not to poach rivals' employees. Intel Corp. and Adobe Systems Inc. were also named in the lawsuit brought by former employees of the companies.

To thwart even more disclosures, the companies announced a settlement to avoid a trial last Spring. But on Friday, U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh declined to approve the deal, saying the payment was too low.

[Demeter]

1. Good judge

must be a lot of smoke...