Apple Allegedly Sought Non-Poaching Deal With Palm

theodp writes "A Bloomberg report that Apple CEO Steve Jobs proposed a possibly illegal truce with Palm against poaching their respective employees is sure to pique the interest of the US Department of Justice, which already is investigating whether Google, Yahoo, Apple, Genentech and other tech companies conspired to keep others from stealing their top talent. '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,' former Palm CEO Ed Colligan reportedly told Jobs in August 2007." The article notes that Apple was probably reacting to Palm's hiring of Jon Rubenstein, who had been instrumental in developing the iPod and went on to spearhead the Pre for Palm (and has now become Palm's chairman and CEO). "It's the story about the importance of charismatic engineers," said veteran Silicon Valley forecaster Paul Saffo. "People don't work for Palm. They work for Jon Rubinstein. One has to wonder how Steve Jobs ever let Jon Rubinstein leave."

At Apple, employees just work

[elrous0]

Apple wasn't looking to screw over their employees. They merely wished to make the Apple employment experience more simple and elegant. With other employers, employees must make complicated and confusing decisions about raises and other job opportunities, resolve conflicts between competing employers, etc. At Apple, it's a simple "You work here" interface.

Peace, Love and Anti-Competitive Behavior

[furytrader]

Indirectly eliminating your vocational opportunities by working at Apple: that's not a bug in your employment contract, it's a feature.

I have a non-poaching deal with my palm

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm only allowed to jerk myself off.

Apparently the reply was -

[musefrog]

Jobs: "If a CEO does it, it's not illegal."

Re:At Apple, employees just work

[Em Emalb]

ah yes, the infamous iWork program. I've heard good and bad things about this program.

Last I read, iWork is not compatible with iLife, unless you're running the iWork is iLife RC2.

I have not updated to that level of iLife, thankfully.

Re:I have a non-poaching deal with my palm

[Anonymous Coward]

Apropos jerking off, I bet tonight a lot of Apple fanbois will be jerking off to the Apple logo with tears in their eyes. "I love you but you can be so mean!" :D

Re:At Apple, employees just work

[Tim4444]

I heard the iWork doesn't have a sleep mode. You can only use the buddy device iBreakForCoffee.

He's only looking out for the good of the people!

[spoilsportmotors]

Best response thus far: http://www.fakesteve.net/2009/08/likely-illegal-bitch-please.html [fakesteve.net]. Glad he's back, honestly.

Re:Apparently the reply was -

[somersault]

Don't think "illegal". Think "legally different".

Re:Jobs doing something illegal...

[Hognoxious]

Jobs is a cut throat CEO

Totally true. The turtleneck is there to conceal an armoured gorget.

Re:At Apple, employees just work

[TheGreenNuke]

On top of that, iWork will not work on mobile devices and does not support roaming licenses.

Re:Apparently the reply was -

[Nihixul]

It's merely iLegal.

Re:Non-Poaching != Non-Compete

[An ominous Cow art]

You make a very bold statement.

Re:Some of them just can't stand Jobs.

[ksheff]

screaming at someone isn't what one would expect in a professional environment, but at least no chairs were thrown.

Re:At Apple, employees just work

[smellsofbikes]

The satire's better because the target is more interesting. It's easy to model Microsoft as this nearly all-powerful obelisk of pure evil, and there's nothing funny, ironic, or edgy about criticizing pure evil. Apple, however, can be modelled as just as evil as Microsoft but with a cheerful, shiny exterior, like an M&M: crunchy and bright-colored on the outside, but filled with darkness. Suddenly there's room for a lot more range of critical approaches, and a lot more targets, especially the people who only see the shiny exterior.

Re:Fuck you, employers

[Hognoxious]

Forming a union of IT workers would be like herding cats. They can't even agree on whether vi is better than emacs.

Re:At Apple, employees just work

[jeko]

Oh, come on, it's fun bashin' everybody.

Watch this:

Obama's puttin'-geezers-outta-their-misery death panels are even more gun-totin' retarded than Dick Cheney and George Bush's love child with Condoleeza Rice, Alberto Gonzalez.

See? One sentence mortally offended:

1. Democrats
2. Republicans
3. Gays
4. Latinos
5. African Americans
6. Special Olympics
7. Senior Citizens
8. The NRA
9. the illegitimate

You can play too. See how many special interest groups you can offend with less than 30 words.

Re:Jobs doing something illegal...

[Quothz]

Lots of millionaires who just want some privacy in their lives. People like Jobs.

And some people torture kittens to death. People like Jobs.

Now I do, indeed, have documentary evidence that Jobs does not donate anonymously to charity. So spare me your wrath, please. The confusion undoubtedly stems from the fact that Jobs tells his family and closest friends* that he's going to, but then he secretly blows it gambling on bartop slug races.

Seriously: Who cares? I wouldn't sit down and drink a beer with the guy either way.

* By which I mean his airplane and his airplane's mechanic.