Bloomberg News has recently revealed that Steve Jobs reportedly contacted then CEO Ed Colligan to agree not to hire away each other’s ex-employees.

The conversation took place sometime after former Apple executive Jon Rubinstein was hired away by Palm to help develop the Palm Pre and accompanying WebOS. Ironically, Apple had just hired away 2% of Palm’s workforce to help develop what would then be the iPhone, a short time before Rubinstein left Apple. Then CEO Ed Colligan had a simple response to Jobs’ offer and could likely land the Apple CEO in legal scrutiny once again:

“Your proposal that we agree that neither company will hire the other’s employees, regardless of the individual’s desires, is not only wrong, it is likely illegal.”

It’s not uncommon for top level executives and employees to sign a non-compete clause given to them by the company they work for so sensitive company secrets won’t be divulged and their road map jeopardized. However, Apple took this concept a step further and would’ve likely stifled design creativity by consolidating where former employees can work once they leave Apple. Jobs nonetheless was infuriated with Palm’s response which could explain the two’s suspected bitter rivalry:

Bloomberg states that Jobs said, “We must do whatever we can to stop this.” He went on to say that Apple had more patents and money than Palm, if Palm were to consider a legal fight.

Via: Everything iCafe