anti-poaching
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Tech giants settle anti-poaching lawsuit for $415 million
Silicon Valley's anti-poaching conspiracy has reached its conclusion. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh has approved the $415 million settlement, suggested by Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe earlier this year. The four tech giants have long been accused of agreeing not to poach each other's employees. According to the employees who filed the antitrust class action law suit in 2011, the internal policy to not hire someone from one of the other companies in the pact stunted their growth and prevented them from having access to higher paychecks. One of the main deciding factors in the case was a set of emails between senior executives like Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt that revealed the practice of "no-poach" lists and requests that attempted to thwart the hiring of valued employees.
6 technologies that protect endangered animals from poachers
By Cat DiStasio Just about everyone with internet access spent last week reading about crimes against animals happening in far-flung places on the globe. If that sort of news moves you, it might leave you feeling a bit small and helpless. Luckily, there are a number of organizations doing fantastic work to protect wild animals from poachers -- and they could use your help. You can do something as simple as donating your old cellphone to turn it into an anti-poaching detection system. Most solutions designed to conserve wildlife focus on tracking the movements of protected animals and vigilantly warding off potential dangers. However, intrepid conservationists are also using everything from 3D printing to poisonous pink dyes to ward off hunters. Read on for six technologies that protect endangered animals -- and help support the organizations working on the ground to protect these majestic creatures.
Apple and Google want to settle no-poaching lawsuit for $415 million
Google, Apple, Adobe and Intel do not want to go to trial in April -- they've made that clear by agreeing to a $415 million settlement for the no-poaching class action lawsuit filed by over 60,000 employees years ago. The companies originally offered $324.5 million in 2014, but Judge Lucy Koh turned it down, as she believed the plaintiffs deserve a lot more than that. That's still far from the $3 billion the plaintiffs originally wanted, but it's still $90 million more to divvy up amongst themselves. What's this no-poaching lawsuit about anyway? Well, between 2005 and 2009, these four Silicon Valley corporations along with Lucasfilm, Intuit and Pixar had an agreement not to steal each other's employees.
Apple, Google and Intel CEOs ordered into questioning over no-poaching deals
If you're the sort to go CEO-watching, you may want to swing by Judge Lucy Koh's courtroom in the near future. Judge Koh has ordered four hours each of depositions from Apple's Tim Cook, Intel's Paul Otellini and former Google chief Eric Schmidt to glean more information about the alleged no-poaching agreements at the heart of a civil lawsuit that also includes Genentech, Intuit and Pixar. The line of questioning might not lead to any smoking gun statements -- the Department of Justice already did some homework, after all. Should Judge Koh find against the companies, however, the high-profile investigation might determine the size and scope of any potential compensation for technology workers who claim they were shortchanged for years.
Tim Cook ordered to undergo questioning in anti-poaching case
Even though he wasn't CEO at the time, Apple's Tim Cook will be questioned about the company's hiring practices as part of a anti-poaching lawsuit, says a Reuters report. Apple, along with several other tech heavyweights, is embroiled in a civil lawsuit that accuses the company of illegally instituting anti-poaching hiring policies. According to the suit, executives at major companies like Apple, Google, Pixar and others agreed to not poach each other's employees. As part of the agreement, employees would be hired collectively and individual negotiations would not be allowed. Though Cook was not CEO at the time, Judge Lucy Koh said Cook should still be questioned. "I find it hard to believe a COO would have no say over salary and compensation for all employees," Koh said. Google's Eric Schmidt will also be questioned and other executives are slated to participate in upcoming depositions. The civil suit was filed by several ex-employees and follows a DOJ investigation into these hiring practices. Apple, Google and others eventually settled with the DOJ and agreed to stop instituting no solicitation policies. [Image via Flickr member walknboston]
Russian technology firms agree to avoid poaching each other, keep salaries in check
American companies that reach no-poaching agreements do so behind closed doors, as it's considered illegal and anti-competitive. No such reservations appear to exist in Russia, as several of the country's top technology giants have openly admitted to reaching an unprecedented verbal deal: Acronis, Epam, Kaspersky Labs, Parallels and Yandex have all promised not to actively recruit each other's staff. They contend to CNews that it's a way to prevent salaries from getting out of control as staff are lured away, and that fear isn't entirely without justification -- there's a well-known salary war between Facebook and Google in Silicon Valley, for example, that makes it tough for smaller companies to attract the same talent. Whether or not the pact stands may be another matter. There's no history of Russian court action versus anti-poaching deals, but concern exists that the truce may not be strictly above-board. [Image credit: Jennifer Boyer, Flickr]
Antitrust class action lawsuit filed against Apple, others over anti-poaching agreements
The law firm of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein has announced that they have filed a class action lawsuit against Apple and other major tech companies on behalf of a Lucasfilm employee. The lawsuit alleges that the tech companies took part in illegal "no solicitation" agreements that barred them from poaching each others employees. These anti-poaching agreements led to "eliminate competition and cap pay for skilled employees" according to the lawsuit. MacRumors notes that in addition to Apple, the suit names Adobe, Google, Intel, Intuit, Lucasfilm, and Pixar as defendants. Former Lucasfilm software engineer Siddharth Hariharan said in a statement, "My colleagues at Lucasfilm and I applied our skills, knowledge, and creativity to make the company an industry leader. It's disappointing that, while we were working hard to make terrific products that resulted in enormous profits for Lucasfilm, senior executives of the company cut deals with other premiere high tech companies to eliminate competition and cap pay for skilled employees." The lawsuit goes on to say the the anti-poaching agreements first took place among Pixar and Lucasfilm in 2005. Shortly thereafter, Apple, Adobe, Google, Intel, and Intuit all joined in. The anti-poaching agreements were allegedly in place until 2009.
