Steve Jobs has banned Google from hiring even former Apple employees

Between the companies of Silicon Valley has always been a struggle for talented employees. But in 2005, the companies signed a non-aggression pact , according to which they promised not to entice employees from each other. It all started with a letter from Steve Jobs on February 17, 2005, in which he threatened the executive director Eric Schmidt: "If you hire another of our people, that means war." Eric Schmidt apologized and ordered the personnel department to no longer call Apple employees. Later, other companies joined this “cartel” of conspirators, including Adobe, Intel, Dell and IBM, and so on.

When one day, a Google staff member accidentally called someone from Apple’s developers, Steve Jobs sent an angry letter - and the offender was immediately dismissed from Google.

At first, the agreement extended only to managers, but then it also spread to developers. Because of secret collusion, talented programmers lost the opportunity to move to another company with a salary increase. In 2009, the US Department of Justice launched an antitrust investigation into secret collusion. Stranded workers filed a class action lawsuit . The trial of the case should begin in May 2014.
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As it turns out now, the influence of Steve Jobs extended not only to the current, but even to the former employees of Apple. PandoDaily published a correspondence between Steve Jobs and Alan Eustace, vice president of Google for development (copies of the letters were sent to Brin and Page). On March 28, 2006, Eustace wrote Jobs: “Steve, Google wants to make an offer to Jean-Marie Yullo to open a small development center in Paris. Larry, Sergey and Jean-Marie believe that it is important to get your approval before making such an offer. ”

This is Jean-Marie Hullot, a former employee of Apple, whose French development team played an important role in creating the iPhone. In 2001, Steve Jobs personally flew to Paris to convince him to go to work at Apple, which he did. But then a strategic decision was made to move the development of the iPhone to Silicon Valley. In December 2005, Apple refused the services of the Yullo Group. For several months, they remained without work until the opportunity to work at Google appeared.

In the letter, Eustace assures Jobs that the French center of Google will not be engaged in technologies that compete with Apple’s development: “Jean-Marie worked a lot to leave Apple on better conditions, and agreed to abide by the conditions on non-competition. He loves Apple and will do nothing to harm you or the company. ”

“Google and Apple relationships are extremely important to us. If this relationship is in any way threatened by the invitation of an employee, please let us know and we will give up this opportunity, ”Eustace wrote.

There was no response from Jobs for two weeks, and Google began to worry. Jean-Marie Yullo decided to go on a two-week trip to the Himalayas with his wife and children, expressing the hope that Steve would still receive his blessing by his return.

On April 9, Jobs wrote a letter asking what his former engineer would work on. Eustace hastened to assure Steve that no matter what project was launched in Paris, he would by no means contradict the non-competition agreements, that is, nothing related to mobile phones. Eustace suggested sending Jobs a project on which the Paris center Google will work. He agreed.

When Yullo returned from the Himalayas two weeks later, on April 25, 2006, Eustace wrote to Steve again, clarifying whether the possible ban on hiring does not apply to other employees who at one time went to Apple along with Yullo, because nobody personally invited them to Apple .

Jobs' answer was concise: "We would really like you not to hire them."

At the talks ended. Eustace wrote to colleagues that he considered it “inconvenient” to ask Steve about the reasons for his decision. In late May 2006, Google finally abandoned plans to open a French development center. Alan Eustace told Jobs about this decision, with a postscript, how important Steve’s support for the Google-Apple partnership is.

Jean-Marie Yullo spent the next few years traveling with his wife and children around Bhutan and other Asian countries.