Did Apple and Google make an anti-poaching deal?

“Back in June, before the ties that bound the two companies unraveled and Google’s Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple’s board of directors, The New York Times reported that the U.S. Department of Justice had begun an antitrust investigation into the two companies’ hiring practices,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune.

“The issue was whether Apple and Google had made an anti-poaching deal — an agreement not to go fishing each others’ talent pool — that could be considered a collusive restraint on trade,” Elmer-DeWitt reports.

“According to Gary Reback, a lawyer who helped persuade the Justice Department to pursue its 1998 antitrust case against Microsoft, companies are generally free to choose not to recruit from their business partners. But a written agreement between two firms to steer clear of each others’ employees could raise questions,” Elmer-DeWitt reports.

Full article here.