Silicon Valley tech giants, including Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe, have agreed to pay $415 million to settle an antitrust case filed by their software engineers for allegedly conspiring to limit wages and avoiding hiring each other's employees.
A person close to the negotiations told the New York Times that the settlement amount is higher than the original $324.5 million proposed settlement. The amount increased after U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, Calif. rejected it last year saying it was unreasonable and even criticized the lawyers for coming up with an offer that's too low.
Even so, $415 million is still much lower than the damages that these companies might incur once found guilty of antitrust violations, which amounts to more than $9 billion, if they go to trial, Businessweek reported.
The source added that the tech companies agreed to just pay the settlement fee to protect the image of their brands.
According to the class-action suit filed by 64,000 software engineers led by former Adobe employee Michael Devine, all four tech companies conspired to limit their employees pay between 2005 and 2009. This strategy affected tens of thousands of workers. The plaintiffs used the deceased Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' email to Google CEO Eric Schmidt agreeing not to steal each other's employees by offering them lower wages to discourage them, according to the USA Today.
Lawyers for plaintiffs and an Intel spokesman confirmed that a new settlement has been reached but did not confirm the amount nor provide more details about it. Google, Apple and Adobe refused to comment on the news.
