Apple has agreed to settle a poaching lawsuit after an electric car battery manufacturer accused it of used the practice to take some of its employees.
A123 Systems, based in Waltham, Mass., claimed that the tech giant started aggressively poaching some its employees in June 2014, specifically engineers who were working on some of the company's biggest projects, according to BBC News.
The issue led to A123 filing of a suit in the Massachusetts federal court in February this year. Apple denied the claims and tried to have the case thrown out in March. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company said the case was based "solely on labels and conclusions" that weave "an elaborate but ultimately incorrect and unsupportable theory." However, Apple's effort was unsuccessful.
A123 builds battery packs for Chrysler, Chevrolet and other top automakers, The Verge reported.
The company said in the court documents that the "high-tech PhD and engineering employees" Apple was poaching were working on a new technology for electric car batteries, and that Apple was doing this to create its own battery division.
However, A123 announced in a court filing this week that it has "reached an agreement" with Apple, The Verge reported. The company added that they are both working out the final details.
Rumors about Apple working on its own electric car have been floating around since the filing of the lawsuit, and they are expected to continue despite the agreement between Apple and A123.
