Google, Apple, Adobe Systems, Intel, Intuit and Disney's Pixar reached a settlement with the US Justice Department that bars the companies from agreeing to not poach each other's engineers and other highly skilled workers, the department said on Friday.
The firms had reached a series of agreements with each other - Apple had deals with Google, Adobe and Pixar while Google had separate deals with Intel and Intuit - agreeing not to cold call each others' workers, the department said. Such agreements violate antitrust laws since agreeing not to hire away top talent could stifle competition for highly skilled workers and hold down wages.
"The companies engaged in a practice of agreeing not to cold call any employee at the other company," the department said. "The complaint indicates that the agreements were formed and actively managed by senior executives of these companies."
In a statement filed with the US District Court for the District of Columbia, the Justice Department said the agreements were "anticompetitive because they eliminated a significant form of competition to attract high tech employees, and, overall, substantially diminished competition to the detriment of the affected employees."
But Google discounted any possibility that its agreements pressed down wages and said that it had agreed only not to cold call workers.
"We continued to recruit from these companies through LinkedIn, job fairs, employee referrals, or when candidates approached Google directly. In fact, we hired hundreds of employees from the companies involved during this time period," Google Associate General Counsel Amy Lambert wrote in a blog posting.
Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said that Intel was settling the matter to protect its business. "Intel does not believe its actions violated the law nor does the company agree with the allegations," he said.
Intel recently settled an unrelated antitrust complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.
The Justice Department is also looking at Google's plan to create a massive online library. And it is assessing Google's buy of travel software company ITA Software to determine if the deal violates antitrust law.