Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe have agreed to pay $415 million to end the anti-poaching civil lawsuit that accused them of a conspiracy in which they do not hire each other's employees, according to CNET. The settlement was reached on Wednesday in San Jose, Calif., where it was approved by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, who said that the settlement was "fair, adequate, and reasonable."
The settlement will be divided among the thousands of plaintiffs involved in the lawsuit, with approximately 5,860 workers awarded an average of $5,770 each, according to Fortune.
The lawsuit was filed by former employees of the companies and sheds light on the behind-the-scences practices of some of the major players in the tech industry. The employees claimed that their career growth and potential to earn higher salaries was hindered by illegal policies, according to Engadget.
An email exchange between Steve Jobs, former Apple co-founder and CEO, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was one of the main pieces of evidence in the case.
"I would be very pleased if your recruiting department would stop doing this," Jobs wrote to Schmidt on March 7, 2007, referring to Google hiring Apple employees.
"I believe we have a policy of no recruiting from Apple and this is a direct inbound request," Schmidt responded. "Can you get this stopped and let me know why this is happening? I will need to send a response back to Apple quickly so please let me know as soon as you can."
