Revealed: "illegal" Apple iPhone / Palm Pre proposed poaching pact

It's reported that Apple's Steve Jobs proposed a "no employee poaching" agreement with Palm. Apparently, Jobs made overtures to Palm's Ed Colligan to prevent movement between the iPhone and Pre teams. But Colligan rebuffed him, with the suggestion that it would be an illegal collusion. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers crowdsource the analysis, and conclude the DoJ may be getting involved.

By Richi Jennings. August 21, 2009.
[Updated 10.05am EDT: Mosspuppet]

Your humble blogwatcher has selected these bloggy morsels for your enjoyment. Not to mention Star Wars FAIL...

Bloomberg's Connie "Saint" Guglielmo fires this missive: [Tickle me -Ed.]

Former Palm Inc. Chief Executive Officer Ed Colligan rejected a proposal from Apple Inc.’s Steve Jobs to refrain from hiring each other’s employees two years ago, calling it wrong and “likely illegal.” ... The U.S. Justice Department is investigating possible collusion in hiring among technology companies.
...
Jobs said Apple had patents and more money than Palm if the companies ended up in a legal fight. ... Highlights the tension between the companies as Rubinstein took over product development to help lead a turnaround at Palm, a pioneer in handheld computing. [Jon] Rubinstein was head of Apple’s iPod unit before he left the company in 2006 and had worked with Jobs for more than 15 years.

Thomas Ricker has the bottom line:

Pre owners shouldn't expect to see device support return to iTunes anytime soon with this cat-fight ready to explode.
...
Bloomberg did not see the actual proposal communication from Jobs but do quote him as saying, "We must do whatever we can to stop this."... The communications were apparently given to Bloomberg by somebody within Palm in a move that seems to be posturing Palm Inc. into an advantageous position as the US Department of Justice reportedly investigates a collusion of hiring practices between Apple, Google, and other technology companies.

Rik Myslewski groks the significance:

Rubinstein certainly knew who at Apple was worth luring away. After playing a key role in the development of the Apple-saving iMac, released in 1998, Rubinstein had gone on to shepherd the development of the iPod, released in late 2001, as head of Cupertino's hardware division.
...
The illegality of such a deal would likely be based on its anticompetitive nature - and the US Justice Department isn't turning a blind eye towards such hiring practices. ... [And] Colligan ... implies that Jobs had requested that Palm not only to refrain from recruiting Apple employees, but also to turn them down if they came calling on their own.

Sarah Schoenfelder says some stuff:

Steve Jobs may be a marketing genius, and one of the brightest CEOs in technology, but he’s left the Department of Justice a trail of crumbs a mile wide.
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It's starting to get messy. First the FTC began evaluating overly cozy ties between Apple and Google’s boards of directors. Separately, the DOJ is probing what could be a secret anti-poaching agreement between Apple and Google. Now it turns out Apple may have tried the same trick with Palm..

Adam Frucci pours sauce on both goose and gander:

Of course, Steve was fine with stealing employees from Palm, as Apple had already hired away 2% of its workforce to develop the iPhone. But when it's the other way around? Bring on the shady backroom deals!

But, methinks, Fake Steve Jobs doth protest too much:

It's totally not illegal -- we do it all the time out here. Everybody is making this out like I'm some kind of bad guy for not wanting to poach and be poached upon. But I'm not a bad guy. I just think that all this job-hopping just slows down product development, because we all have to keep training and re-training new people all the time, and as everyone knows, the only thing I want to do is make great products, and I can't stand anything that gets in the way of that.
...
Like we say in the Valley, our best assets walk out the door at 11 p.m.

Brian Hogg puts his hand in a Mosspuppet: [Slightly fruity language ahoy]

So what's your take?
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• The Most Epic FAILs in Star Wars Design
  [hat tip: Boing Boing, via Ant]

Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 24 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him as @richi on Twitter or richij on FriendFeed, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: itblogwatch@richij.com.