Apple founder Steve Jobs and Google CEO Eric Schmidt may have illegally planned to keep employee salaries low by agreeing not to hire each other's workers, according to emails obtained by a federal court.
According to the emails, Jobs and Schmidt privately formed a business pact that they would not lure each other's employees to come and work for them. The hands off policy kept technology salaries low, depriving employees billions of dollars in wages they could have earned, reports say.
The emails were presented as evidence in a California class action lawsuit brought against Apple, Google, Intel, Adobe and other technology giants.
The plot allegedly dates back to 2005 when Jobs, who passed away in 2011, threatened "war" against Google founder Sergey Brin if he was caught trying to hire employees from Apple's Safari web team, Business Insider reported.
"If you [Brin] hire a single one of these people that means war." Jobs wrote, according to Business Insider.
Two years later, Jobs apparently emailed Schmidt when he got wind that a Google recruiter reached out to an Apple employee.
"I would be very pleased if your recruiting department would stop doing this," Jobs wrote, Business Insider reported.
According to the lawsuit, the pact between Apple and Google came at a time when demand for engineers in Silicon Valley was high, RT USA reported. More than 100,000 engineers are represented in the lawsuit, which was filed after an investigation by the Justice Department in 2010. The plaintiffs claim the deal robbed them of over $9 billion.
The alleged conspiracy was not just between Google and Apple. Palm CEO Edward Colligan testified before the trial that Jobs forced him into the agreement by threatening to recruit his employees.
"Mr. Jobs also suggested that if Palm did not agree to such an agreement, Palm could face lawsuits alleging infringement of Apple's many patents," Colligan said, according to RT USA.
Apple did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment. Google has claimed that it actively seeks out talent.
The trial is scheduled to begin in May.
