Yahoo added to Apple, Google antitrust probes
More news has surfaced about the Department of Justice probe into possible anti-trust violations within Apple and Google, and Yahoo and Genentech have been added to the investigation just for good measure.
Apple and Google were already on the hot seat for sharing members on their boards of directors, as we reported a few weeks ago. Now the Justice Department is looking into the hiring practices of Apple and Google, and has added Yahoo and Genentech to the mix. At issue is whether or not the three have illegally coordinated their hiring practices when hiring their best and brightest employees.
Justice has launched investigations into the practices of all four firms, involving some of the same people that are at the heart of the Board-member-sharing investigation. The Washington Post is following this story closely and says that none of the principals have yet responded to questions, according to a story in Wired. Specifically, the DoJ alleges that agreements may have been put in place not to steal one another’s key business and engineering employees, and that such practices could have unfairly stifled competition.
At the heart of the problem is an allegation that these four companies (and perhaps others) have consulted each other on specific employees which should or should not be recruited, and by whom. By trading one key employee for another (or by not trading them, perhaps), these high-tech firms are able to protect specific employees without getting involved in bidding wars or risking the loss of mission-critical personnel. American Antitrust Institute president Albert Foer, in an interview with the Post, said, “This could be collusive restraint on trade, which could have a serious impact on competition.”
The top echelon of high-tech employees, especially top management and high-level engineering personnel, are heavily recruited by firms in Silicon Valley. Those firms often hurt each another by luring critical people away from other companies. The investigation into possible collusion on the part of high-tech firms is believed to be in its early stages, with the DoJ having just sent requests for documents and information to a small group of companies which are being targeted. It is easy to see how the size of this investigation could grow and that it could have wide implications for the companies and their employees.
Related Posts:
