Steve Jobs Threatened Palm with Patent Suit Over No-Hire Policy

[apolloa]

I don't necessarily endorse or support it, however I'm a realist and know that it happens, and so does everyone else who has some idea of how corporations and the people who run them operate. I'm saying, we could pick out every negative aspect of every individual and corporation, or look at what benefit they've brought to me and those around me. Apple has made a significant difference in the way that I live, and I appreciate the hard work and difficult decision making (wrong or right) that has had to take place in order for me to live the life that I do.

If you think you have the things you have, or are able to do the things you do, without someone, somewhere in time acting in a manor that you would disapprove of, you are incorrect.

Hence my comment:

I can tell you many corporations 'try' to ignore laws or twist them to suit them, usual surrounding employees rights, but if they go to court over it, they often alway's loose because the Judge will remind them I dont care what you say, the law is the law, period! It is NOT open to interpretation.

But to sit there and happily support these blatant breaches of law, says a lot about you. Corporations relie on their staff not taking them to court, scaremongering them etc. But the law is the law, no matter if you like it or not, and in a court the law is what prevails, unless it seems if it surrounds patents that is...

And I must be different to you because I do NOT endorse this behaviour and I fully support the courts taking them to the cleaners over it. I also believe that in this century we do not need to agree with this behaviour as it helps no one.

 

[apple2aapl]

You listed employees. Funny. This is what the issue is about. Jobs conspired (and blackmailed) to the detriment of (some of) its employees.



You go right ahead. Damned those infernal people who were potentially shafted so you could have those things. Are you also in favor of sweat shops and/or slave labor? Were you one of those people who hated that fact that Foxconn was audited because damn those who want better conditions for themselves as long as you get products they love?

haha No I dont favor sweat shops but I appreciate what the children go through so that I can have nice things. I wish it all weren't so, but it is, so I look at the psoitives.

 

[etrinh]

They are both illegal and immoral. The difference is merely one of degree.

Oh get off your moral high horse. Unless you subscribe to every moral principle you shouldn't be so judgemental. Everyone has moral faults because everyones morality is different. It's how we reflect on them and come to terms with our own actions that's important. (ie. if I purchase a shiny tech toy built on the backs of cheap labor, I need to come to terms with my own actions. Who am I to judge anyone else. Nor do I need you judging me)

 

[apple2aapl]

Oh get off your moral high horse. Unless you subscribe to every moral principle you shouldn't be so judgemental. Everyone has moral faults because everyones morality is different. It's how we reflect on them and come to terms with our own actions that's important. (ie. if I purchase a shiny tech toy built on the backs of cheap labor, I need to come to terms with my own actions. Who am I to judge anyone else. Nor do I need you judging me)

I think this is what I was trying to say, but you did it much more eloquently.

 

[anomalogue]

The real screwees

It was his employees Steve was screwing over the most in this, not his competitors.

 

[iGrip]

Exactly.

It would seem that we agree. Thanks for setting the record straight.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Steve loved competition. He loved when people were challenged and driven to beat out the competition.

He despised companies hiring head hunters and gleaning IP from present staff using massive incentive practices to bring them on board.

Ask Nvidia in 6 months how much it liked poaching AMD staff. To date, 140,000 pages of IP was stolen by 4 top engineers at AMD as they embarked for lucrative positions at Nvidia.

Coincidentally, Nvidia has made some great strides in their GPGPU architecture designs of late.

Intel loved poaching so much from AMD they've had to pay $2 billion to date for those honest practices.

I think he only liked things he could control, and when all else failed he resorted to threats and intimidation, hardly a sign of a true competitor. But he'd have no problem doing whatever it took to hire someone he wanted. A bit hypocritical IMO.

 

[dru`]

yellow journalism?

This article, like that one at Ars is linkbaiting BS designed to stir trouble rather than inform.

Go read the actual email reply Steve sent.

He called out--by name--Jon Rubenstein, the former senior VP of Apple hardware and former Apple CFO Fred Anderson.

He specifically states Jon was directly involved in this Palm hiring process.

In a CYA statement in his email, Palm's CEO claimed they told new hires they weren't allowed to use confidential information and that they had duties to prior employers. The patent lawsuit threat is clearly on this point.

They even agreed letting people work where they want wasn't the issue.

As CEO Steve Jobs had a fiduciary duty to shareholders to stop Jon from using his his intimate knowledge of Apple's design and engineering roadmap and other confidential information to build the Pre and WebOS teams at competitor Palm.

What was the result? Apple and Palm hired one another's employees anyway. The "no cold calling" agreement among companies was voided after the gov't got involved.

 

[NorEaster]

It was his employees Steve was screwing over the most in this, not his competitors.

Completely agree here and I'm surprised Steve didn't realize this (or maybe he did and just didn't care).

 

[Phx08]

Wow...really a nasty side of Jobs showing up in this.

 

[dalexa]

is it just me or most of the people is missing this

Jobs was so furious that Palm was hiring some of his former employees that...

they weren't working for apple at the time and this...

Apple hired at least 2% of Palm's workforce. To put it in perspective, had Palm done the same, we'd have hired 300 folks from Apple. Instead, to my knowledge, we've hired just three.

selective reading i suppose.

and now i'm going to try to solve with apple the problem of my magsafe charger that works only when it wants and not when i need it to.

 

[leroypants]

Everyone is so quick to judge! The decisions Steve made, regardless if they were wrong or right, have put Apple and it's employees, shareholders, and customers in a great place. Steve was not a good or bad man, he was a man, who made an impact. While everyone else is scrutinizing Apples practices and the actions of company officials, I will be appreciating the struggles that have had to take place for me to enjoy the THINGS I have.

The same could be and has been said about people like Whitey Buldger and John Gotti.

 

[distemp]

He really was *such* a miserable prick. I can't imagine working for him. Anyone who trades out a car every few weeks to not have to have license plates and who parks said cars across three parking spots is a damaged person with real issues.


/rant

 

[iGrip]

He fiercely protected his talent, so what..

The "so what" is that he used illegal means and hurt his employees by denying them access to better jobs.

It was never "his" talent. It belonged to the employees that he hurt. It also contributed to the national economy, but Steve took that value as his own.

He used illegitimate, immoral and illegal means to enrich some Hedge Funds on Wall Street at the expense of everybody else.

There's a whole lot more "so what" in other people's posts. I suggest you read them and think hard about why so many people consider his actions to be immoral.

 

[7709876]

Further evidence that Apple isn't any different to any other big company. It is just as scummy as the rest of them.

 

[TheMarc]

Just shows what a complete dick Steve Jobs was. Threatening a lawsuit if the other party does not agree to an illegal activity.
I`m glad that some companies like Palm have bosses with integrity.

I agree that what Steve Jobs wanted is against each worker's right to choose who he works for and is therefore completely reprehensible.

But I don't think those who were against it, for example Palm, were because they had more integrity. I think, simply, they thought they stood more to gain than to loose from being able to recruit other people from competitors (at the risk of loosing some workers of theirs to others).

Finally, I can't believe some actually defend Samsung saying that they are "less" scum because they "only" bribed officials in order to not pay taxes. This deprives government, thus potentially the whole rest of society, resources that are justly due to them and is at the core of the problem we face nowadays of rising inequalities, rising public debts, and failing public services.

 

[iGrip]

Terrible. This practice should be outlawed. If you want top talent, pay top dollar.

The practice is already illegal. It is Just Plain Evil.

 

[lazard]

not surprised Jobs would resort to legal threats to stifle competition.

 

[JustMartin]

He's probably up there suing God for various patent and IP infringements, although God probably has some good lawyers too.

No, the devil gets the lawyers

 

[dru`]

Not surprisingly most of the coverage is anti-Steve because Steve is dead and the ultimately icon to beat up on and fabulous link-bait. Don't pretend that wasn't your goal.

But what did he say in the email???

"It's not just a matter of our employees deciding they want to join Palm. They are being actively recruited using knowledge supplied by Jon Rubenstein and Fred Anderson, with Jon personally participating in the recruiting process. We must do whatever we can do stop this."

There you have it. Steve is righteously pissed two former senior execs are helping Palm do a brain-drain at Apple using knowledge known to them only because of their high level access and experience at their former employer.

The Palm CEO even agrees this isn't about employees moving between companies but I think he realizes he's in deep trouble so wants something "on the record" in the form of an email for CYA... he says employees are told they have a duty to former employers and Palm isn't interested in confidential information about Apple.

It completely makes sense Steve would threaten to use IP against Palm because Palm is building WebOS and Pre to compete with iPhone and using ex Apple employees to do it.

As CEO, Steve had a duty and that was protecting Apple. He was known to play hardball. That's what you need in an executive and that's what this was.

I have to laugh about this idea this repressed wages or harmed any employees in the valley.

Think about it, if you had iPhone and you see Eric Schmitt on your board one minute and Google switching from Black berry clone to iPhone clones with Android the next and watch two of your senior executive go make an iPhone competitor at Palm, you are NOT going to go quietly, roll over.

Competing means competing. That means you protect what is yours, not letting people copycat and knock-off you to death.

Windows Phone 8 is a competitor ... it's doing its own thing. Android, and especially some Samsung phones? Basically a knock-off.

I can't help but wonder if these same employees who think they were screwed by any 'no cold call' agreements are the same ones who are the type to scurry off and build copycats elsewhere because they're lazy, not inspired.

They probably made it through college sharing assignments, cheating and brown nosing. The people who worked the hardest were too busy working and not looking for opportunities to get ahead.

 

[diazj3]

It was his employees Steve was screwing over the most in this, not his competitors.

Wrong... in the end, he was screwing US, THE CONSUMERS!!! by limiting development and growth opportunities for talented employees and competitors, he was seeking to effectively limit / suppress the development of options available to consumers, so he and Apple would appear on top.

It's not about competition, talent, loyalty... it's about our money and how we, the end consumers, spend it. Another dick move form Jobs.

 

[SmileyBlast!]

Just another example of what a control freak and rectal opening that Steve Jobs actually was. Employees should not be treated like property or slaves. An employee should have the right to leave and go elsewhere if they choose to do so.

Job's always knew that Apple's advantage was its people.
So sure he wanted to keep them out of the hands of competitors.

It almost sounds like the cliche "You'll never work in this town again!" that horrible bosses in movies say.

I'm sure that Steve never said that to anybody though.

 

[charlituna]

, which is why a statement from former Palm executive Edward Colligan

Sounds like heresay, unless they have an email etc to back it up. So that tidbit of possibly his interpretation of things and not actual fact, could get tossed.

----------

Good for Ed Colligan. History has proven him right about this conspiracy among major technology companies to limit employee recruitment.

I can't side with him myself. The issue here isn't an agreement to never hire someone that worked for a competing company but an agreement not to actively go and try to hire away someone. And I don't see that as necessarily a bad thing. It reeks of wanting someone, not because they are right for the job and want to leave their current employer but because of who their current employer is. Wanting them as much for inside knowledge and hobbling the competition as the person's value. And that doesn't seem right and fair to me.

 

[BiigBiscuit]

The only crimes Samsung has ever committed were bribery of politicians to get tax cuts and price fixing on LCD panels (Which Japanese firms have also been caught doing).

Also, here's the definition of scum: A person or group of people regarded as contemptible or worthless.

Both Samsung and Apple are scum, but here's the difference. Samsung's activities don't harm anyone or deprive anyone of their rights. Apple's does.

So you say that because other companies were involved in the "no-poach policies", it does not excuse Apple. Yet, you excuse Samsung because other "Japanese firms have also been caught doing" it, right? And if you think that Samsung isn't harming anyone then you are a misguided person.

 

[codefuns]

Apple makes their money from hardware and software sales. Google makes their money selling you.

If you think "showing you some ads you may need" is selling you, I don't understand your logic.
Google never show ads in your search results, they put ads on the side, you have choice to click it or not.
Now, there are more and more ads in youtube video, but you normally can skip it after several seconds or close it, consider about the cost they need to maintain the framework, it is definitely acceptable.
Google never give your name, telephone number, address, or email to third party company, even in google, they don't allow human to check those information manually, only gov may has that right, but that is not google's fault.

how can you say google sell you? who you think you are? president? terrorist? Maybe you are persecutory type, check for your doctor.