The late Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs was apparently a no-nonsense businessman when it came to cutting down the competition. A public release of court filings on January 22, reveals that Steve Jobs had threatened the former CEO of Palm Inc. with a lawsuit to discourage poaching of Apple employees.
During 2005 through 2007, a "no hire" agreement plan was set in place among Apple, Google and Intel. The terms of the contract were that none of these big tech companies should actively recruit each other's employees.
In a filed court statement by Edward Colligan, the acting CEO of Palm Inc. back in 2007, the detailed information of the correspondence between Colligan and Jobs have been revealed.
A series of events occurred that ultimately lead to a litigation threat. According to Colligan, Jobs called him on the phone in 2007 to discuss hiring practices and proposed a "no hire" agreement between Apple and Palm Inc. In the statement, Colligan reveals, "Mr. Jobs also suggested that if Palm did not agree to such an arrangement, Palm could face lawsuits alleging infringement of Apple's many patents." Colligan dismissed the threat of legal action and replied to Jobs, stating, "If you choose the litigation route, we can respond with our own claims based on patent assets, but I don't think litigation is the answer."
Colligan argues that Jobs was violating antitrust laws among tech companies to even implement an agreement like this. In an email to Jobs, Colligan wrote "Your proposal that we agree that neither company will hire the other's employees, regardless of the individual's desires, is not only wrong, it is likely illegal,"
Jobs responded to Colligan in an email stating, "I'm sure you realize the asymmetry in the financial resources of our respective companies when you say: "we will both just end up paying a lot of lawyers a lot of money." Check out Colligan's entire statement here on Scribd.
