no-poaching
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The TUAW Daily Update Podcast for April 25, 2014
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get some the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the player at the top of the page. The Daily Update has been moved to a new podcast host in the past few days. Current listeners should delete the old podcast subscription and subscribe to the new feed in the iTunes Store here.
Silicon Valley giants settle class action suit over anti-poaching pacts (updated)
Silicon Valley's tech giants aren't going to face that class action lawsuit over no-hiring deals, after all. Adobe, Apple, Google and Intel have all reached a settlement in the case, which would have otherwise headed to trial in late May. The terms of the deal haven't been revealed, but we wouldn't be shocked if a significant amount of cash traded hands. About 64,000 employees had wanted $3 billion in damages after their bosses reached under-the-table deals to avoid poaching each other's staff; while Intuit, Lucasfilm and Pixar settled last year for just $20 million in total, they're small by comparison.
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.
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]
