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> met with them, and then decided they'd rather do it themselves ..., headhunted Masimo engineers, and hired them to reimplement a pulse-ox device. > Masimo a
by tadfisher 3y ago
> met with them, and then decided they'd rather do it themselves
..., headhunted Masimo engineers, and hired them to reimplement a pulse-ox device.
> Masimo and Apple began their relationship in 2013, when Apple discussed potentially integrating Masimo’s sensing technology into future Apple products. Internally, Apple executives debated the idea of buying Masimo and making its chief executive a vice president, according to documents made public at a later trial. But Apple ultimately decided against it because “acquisitions of this size aren’t our style,” an email reads.
> Instead of buying Masimo, Apple ended up hiring Masimo engineers and began working on the technology itself, Masimo later said.
https://www.wsj.com/tech/apple-to-halt-watch-sales-as-it-prepares-to-comply-with-u-s-import-ban-432a018c https://www.wsj.com/tech/apple-to-halt-watch-sales-as-it-pre...
- rvnx 3y agoBasically what 100% of the AI companies are doing right now.
- kstrauser 3y agoFrom an employee's point of view, I'm 100% OK with that. If Apple wants to throw money at an engineer to do the same thing they were already doing, but for Apple, then by all means do so. I don't think it's at all unethical to hire away employees. If it were, that'd lead to bad outcomes for those people (i.e. artificially suppressed wages).
- microtherion 3y ago… which is in fact something Apple was doing in the past. It's somewhat ironic when a company that gets in trouble for their anti-poaching shenanigans now gets accused of poaching. To me, it's clear that hiring competitors' employees is not morally wrong, and for the most part it's not legally wrong either, PROVIDED those employees do not take along their prior employers' confidential information.
- kstrauser 3y agoAgreed, and agreed, with the proviso that “confidential information” doesn’t cover the general knowledge of how something is done. For example, designing motors for Ford shouldn’t mean a lifetime ban on making motors for anyone else.
- mort96 3y agoPersonally, I'm against anti-poaching when Apple does it and I'm against anti-poaching when other people do it.