Apple, Google and four other companies are negotiating an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to end practices that limit hiring of each other’s employees, reports “Bloomberg” (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-24/google-apple-intel-said-poised-for-u-s-agreement-on-hiring.html?), quoting “people familiar with the emerging accord.”
Intel, Adobe, Walt Disney-Pixar and Intuit are also in the talks that would halt agreements under which companies refrained from placing “cold calls” to lure workers, said the people who asked not to be identified discussing the proposal, the article adds. Such unsolicited calls had proved to be successful recruiting tools, one of the people said.
The agreement, which may be completed and announced as early as today (Friday), would conclude an antitrust investigation into recruiting and hiring practices that involved some of the biggest U.S. technology companies. The Justice Department “probably wanted a much stronger agreement, and as part of the negotiations, this is what they got,” Makan Delrahim, a former deputy assistant attorney general for antitrust under President George W. Bush, told “Bloomberg.”