Tech giants including Apple, Google, Intel Corporation and Adobe Systems Incorporated reached a new settlement that would resolve the anti-poaching class action lawsuit filed by Silicon Valley workers in 2011.
Last year, United States District Judge Lucy Koh did not approve the $324.5 million out-of-court settlement offered by the tech giants to the 64,600 tech workers.
Judge rejected the proposed settlement last year
Judge Koh rejected the proposed settlement due to the fact that there are “compelling evidences” against Apple, Google and other tech giants. The judge also believed that the tech workers deserved a more reasonable amount.
One of the complainants did not support the first settlement last year citing the reason that the amount was too low. According to Attorney Daniel Girard, lawyer representing the tech worker said he will now support the new agreement. Atty. Girard declined to disclose the amount of the new settlement.
Evidences against Apple, Google and others are solid
Evidences against the tech giants include email exchanges between Steve Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple and Eric Schmidt, who was then serving as CEO of Google and at the same time member of Apple board.
In one of the e-mails, Schmidt confirmed that Google has a “policy of no recruiting from Apple.
The Silicon Valley workers sued the tech giants for $3 billion. They accused Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe Systems of colluding to prevent their engineers from getting better job offers with higher pay.
The tech giants agreed to settle the case to prevent a court trial. If they lose, there is a possibility that the damages asked by tech workers will be tripled to $9 billion.
The complainants are confident of winning the anti-poaching lawsuit against Apple, Google, Adobe Systems, and Intel because they believed that they presented solid evidences against the tech giants.
A spokesperson for Intel confirmed to ZDNet that the tech giants reached a new agreement to settle the anti-poaching lawsuit. The spokesperson said the details of the settle is still confidential because it was net filed with the court.
