Steve Jobs, unveiling the iPad in 2010.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)
Steve Jobs threatened Palm with a patent lawsuit if the company didn't agree to a deal with Apple whereby neither company would poach the other's workers, according to a legal filing made public today that quotes former Palm CEO Edward Colligan.
The filing, a civil lawsuit brought by five tech workers against Apple, Google, and others that alleges the companies plotted to drive down wages, includes the following sworn statement from Colligan:
"In 2007, I received a call from Steve Jobs, the Chief Executive Officer of Apple. In the months before the call, several employees had moved between the two companies. On the call, Mr. Jobs expressed concern about employees being hired away from Apple by Palm. As a solution, Mr. Jobs proposed an arrangement between Palm and Apple by which neither company would hire the other's employees, including high tech employees. Mr. Jobs also suggested that if Palm did not agree to such an arrangement, Palm could face lawsuits alleging infringements of Apple's many patents."
Colligan's response to Jobs -- that such an arrangement was "not only wrong" but "likely illegal" -- was reported, along with mention of Apple's patents, back in 2009 by Bloomberg, which cited communications it had reviewed. But a sworn statem... [Read more]
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