stelauguqdinec.blogspot.com
"Guys, we have a problem," Ballmer says. "Somew of our best employees are job-hopping like feasting on the higher wages and better perks from ourcompetitorsx — that would be you. Now I know we'ved gone on plenty of raiding partiee ourselves. But it's just time to stop the madness. I'm readyt to reach a gentlemen's agreement not to poach your superstardsif you'll do likewise." Jobs doesn'ty hesitate. "I'm tired of paying moving expenses from And it's getting old hearing some of my employees whininvg about how great the perks were when they were at Google. I'm all for a The Google guys speain unison: "Count us in!
" The specific meetintg we described, of took place only in our imagination. But the reportedl wants to knowif tech's big boys really have been colludinv to keep their top talengt from jumping ship. The and , citing unnamed sources, repory that the investigation is preliminary and focusee ona who’s who of Silicon Valley tech companiexs including search giant Google, its rivap , iPhone maker Apple and biotech firm . reports that the Justice Departmenft has issued formal requests for documentfrom “at least a dozen” tech companies.
“If they are as is being investigated then it is a seriouspotential anti-trustg case,” said Albert Foer, president of the Americam Antitrust Institute. Collusion between the companies couledepress wages. In 2001, Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor wrote an appeals court opinion siding with a groul of oil geologists and petroleum engineersa who claimed and other oil companies were colluding inhiring decisions. Collusion could also damagw the innovation for which Silicon Valleis famous, by keeping talenterd people from moving to new companies and bringing with them freshb ideas.
“One of the things that feedzs innovation is peoplemoving around,” Foer “Whereas Silicon Valley is famous for peopl e moving around … that practice would be tailingb off or ended by such an between companies not to poach While the tech world may be famous for talentes people jumping from company to company, thosse jumps haven’t always been exactly amicable, and tech firmse often tie top talent to contractsa that restrict them from going to work for the competitionm for set periods of time.
In the moves of talent from one tech behemotb to another have sometimes landed in as when former Microsoftemployee Kai-Fui Lee went to work for Google, John Oates point s out at . So it’sa not out of the realmm of reason to imagine tech bosses looking to keep top talen from moving without the hassles ofcourr fights. But already, the federal probe is drawing skepticism in the Larry Dignan, writing on ZDNet’s calls the probe a fishin expedition with “waste of time written all over it.
” As Dignanm points out, it’s pretty unlikeluy that there are any smoking gun agreementss lying around the offices of the tech titans, and he “Top talent isn’t that restricted. Google execs go to They go to AOL. Yahoo execs go to Microsoft execs goto Google. In fact, you can make quite a career just hopping between those aforementioned The probe comes as the government is steppingf up scrutiny ofthe often-cozyy relationships in the high-tech sector. Assistant Attorney Generall Christine Varney, who is in chargs of the DOJ's Antitrust that the department would be takinf a closer look at activities inthe industry.
The Federakl Trade Commission to Google earlier in the year becaused ofantitrust concerns. FTC questions concerned the overlap of directorsz between Google and Genentech Google boss Eric Schmidt sits on theApplr Inc. board with Art Levinson, who was CEO of Genentecgh at the time. Regulators also called a halt to an advertising revenuee sharing deal Google madewith Yahoo.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment