Apple and other tech companies settle anti-poaching lawsuit for $415 million
Apple and three other big Silicon Valley firms have agreed to settle an anti-poaching class action lawsuit to the tune of $415 million.
Filed in 2011, the suit accused Apple, Google, Intel, and Adobe of conspiring to not poach one another’s employees, thereby crippling tech workers’ mobility and ability to secure higher salaries from their current and prospective employers.
Last year, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, rejected a proposed $324.5 million settlement of the lawsuit for falling “below the range of reasonableness.”
But a couple of days ago, it was reported that the four companies had reached a new deal to end the suit with its plaintiffs for a then undisclosed amount.
Now, as reported by Reuters, the settlement price has been confirmed to be $90.5 million more than the previously rejected deal amount.
The case was based largely on email exchanges among key people from competing companies, including the late Apple cofounder and CEO Steve Jobs, who was apparently the mastermind of the anti-poaching arrangements.
See also: Ericsson files complaint in response to Apple’s lawsuit over its LTE technology patents, Lawsuit filed against Apple over allegedly faulty MacBook logic boards dismissed by judge, and Apple’s Beats facing suit from Monster, its original headphone manufacturing partner.
