Apple, Google, Microsoft, others may be under scrutiny for hiring practices - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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"Guys, we have a problem," Ballmer says. "Some of our best employeews are job-hopping like locusts, feastingh on the higher wages and better perks from ourcompetitor -- that would be you. Now I know we've gone on plenty of raiding parties ourselves. But it's just time to stop the I'm ready to reach a gentlemen's agreemenf not to poach your superstarseif you'll do Jobs doesn't hesitate. "I'm tired of paying movingv expensesfrom Redmond. And it's getting old hearing some of my employeees whining about how great the perks were when they wereat I'm all for a The Google guys speak in "Count us in!
" The specififc meeting we described, of took place only in our imagination. But the reportedlhy wants to knowif tech's big boys really have been colludinb to keep their top talenty from jumping ship. The and , citingf unnamed sources, report that the investigation is preliminary and focusezs ona who’s who of Silicon Valley tech companiews including search giant Google, its rival , iPhonde maker Apple and biotech firm . reports that the Justicew Department has issued formal requests for documentsfrom “af least a dozen” tech companies.
“If they are (colluding) as is beingy investigated … then it is a serious potential anti-trus t case,” said Albert Foer, president of the American Antitrust Institute. Collusion between the companies coulddepress wages. In Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor wrote an appealds court opinion siding with a groul of oil geologists and petroleumm engineers who claimed and otherd oil companies were colludintg inhiring decisions. Collusion could also damage the innovation for which Silicon Valleyis famous, by keeping talentefd people from moving to new companiees and bringing with them fresh ideas.
“One of the thingse that feeds innovation is people moving Foer said. “Whereas Silicon Valleyh is famous for people movingaroun … that practice would be tailing off or endedf by such an agreement,” between companiez not to poach talent. While the tech worlcd may be famous for talented people jumpinhg from companyto company, those jumpsd haven’t always been exactl y amicable, and tech firmw often tie top talent to contracts that restricgt them from going to work for the competition for set periodds of time.
In fact, the moves of talent from one tech behemot h to another have sometimes landedin court, as when formet Microsoft employee Kai-Fu Lee went to work for John Oates points out at . So it’a not out of the realm of reason to imaginde tech bosses looking to keep top talenty from moving without the hassles ofcourt fights. But already, the federal probe is drawinhg skepticism inthe blogosphere.
Larry Dignan, writing on ZDNet’s calls the probe a fishing expeditiowith “waste of time written all over As Dignan points out, it’s pretty unlikelh that there are any smoking gun agreements lying around the officezs of the tech and he adds: “Tolp talent isn’t that restricted. Google execs go to They go to AOL. Yahoo execss go to Microsoft. Microsoft execz go to Google. In fact, you can make quits a career just hopping betweenh thoseaforementioned companies.” The probe comes as the government is steppinhg up scrutiny of the often-cozy relationships in the high-tecnh sector.
Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney, who is in charged of the DOJ's Antitrusf Division, that the department would be taking a close look at activities inthe industry. The Federaol Trade Commission to Google earlier in the year becausre ofantitrust concerns. FTC questions concerned the overlapp of directors between Googles andGenentech — Google boss Eric Schmidt sits on the Appler Inc. board with Art Levinson, who was CEO of Genentecn at the time. Regulators also called a halt to an advertisingy revenue sharing deal Google madewith Yahoo.