4 ms·

Isn't this anticompetitive? Doesn't Google have the right to poach whomever they want?

edge17 5y ago
They do, but the lawsuit was brought by the class of affected employees, not by the companies. The companies were all in on the anti-competitive behaviors
Animats 5y ago
Yes. Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, Lucasfilm, and Pixar were all conspiring to keep wages down. Big lawsuit. US$425 million settlement. See link above.
- sneak 5y ago
  The conspiracy was estimated to have cheated workers out of 2-3+ billions of dollars of wages. The settlement was less than half a billion. Eric Schmidt enjoyed a long and prosperous career at Google for many years afterward.
  - nuclearnice3 5y ago
    Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years for losses of $18 billion of which $14 billon was returned to victims. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Madoff https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Madoff
davidw 5y ago
It is anticompetitive. I have always liked this patio11 bit about "poaching": https://twitter.com/patio11/status/606711798352338944 https://twitter.com/patio11/status/606711798352338944
NelsonMinar 5y ago
Yes, it was illegal. But the harm is to employees, not Google. Google was cooperating along with the others so that Apple would not make competing offers to their employees, either.
outworlder 5y ago
Unclear to me. There's a followup email in the same thread saying that Jobs was cool with other companies hiring anyone that approached them directly, but not cool with companies doing "systematic solicitation" - https://twitter.com/TechEmails/status/1402650278105583620/photo/1 https://twitter.com/TechEmails/status/1402650278105583620/ph... Even though the person is paraphrasing what he said, doesn't that make sense? It's scummy and illegal to block a move once a person has decided to switch companies - but it doesn't seem to be the case here. It may be ok to target a specific person that you think may be a great fit. However, is it ok to systematically target entire teams(regardless of whether or not this actually happened)? The answer to that may still be yes, but I haven't made up my mind on that yet.

They do, but the lawsuit was brought by the class of affected employees, not by the companies. The companies were all in on the anti-competitive behaviors

Animats 5y ago

Yes. Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, Lucasfilm, and Pixar were all conspiring to keep wages down. Big lawsuit. US$425 million settlement. See link above.

sneak 5y ago
The conspiracy was estimated to have cheated workers out of 2-3+ billions of dollars of wages. The settlement was less than half a billion. Eric Schmidt enjoyed a long and prosperous career at Google for many years afterward.
- nuclearnice3 5y ago
  Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years for losses of $18 billion of which $14 billon was returned to victims. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Madoff https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Madoff

davidw 5y ago

It is anticompetitive. I have always liked this patio11 bit about "poaching": https://twitter.com/patio11/status/606711798352338944 https://twitter.com/patio11/status/606711798352338944

NelsonMinar 5y ago

Yes, it was illegal. But the harm is to employees, not Google. Google was cooperating along with the others so that Apple would not make competing offers to their employees, either.

outworlder 5y ago

Unclear to me. There's a followup email in the same thread saying that Jobs was cool with other companies hiring anyone that approached them directly, but not cool with companies doing "systematic solicitation" - https://twitter.com/TechEmails/status/1402650278105583620/photo/1 https://twitter.com/TechEmails/status/1402650278105583620/ph... Even though the person is paraphrasing what he said, doesn't that make sense? It's scummy and illegal to block a move once a person has decided to switch companies - but it doesn't seem to be the case here. It may be ok to target a specific person that you think may be a great fit. However, is it ok to systematically target entire teams(regardless of whether or not this actually happened)? The answer to that may still be yes, but I haven't made up my mind on that yet.