“A U.S. judge on Thursday said she had concerns about approving a $324.5 million settlement involving Apple, Google and two other tech companies in a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to avoid poaching each other’s workers,” Dan Levine reports for Reuters. “Tech employees filed a class action lawsuit against Apple Inc, Google Inc, Intel Inc and Adobe Systems Inc in 2011. The case has been closely watched due to the potentially high damages award and the opportunity to peek into the world of Silicon Valley’s elite.”
“The four companies agreed to settle with the plaintiffs in April for a total of $324.5 million. The plaintiffs had planned to ask for about $3 billion in damages at trial, which could have tripled to $9 billion under antitrust law,” Levine reports. “U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California must approve the deal. At a court hearing on Thursday, Koh said the plaintiffs had leverage going into trial against the defendants, given the strength of the evidence in the case.”
“‘I just have concerns about whether this is really fair to the class,'” Koh said, adding that she had not made a decision about whether to approve the deal,” Levine reports. “However, Koh also praised the settlement for allowing all the plaintiffs to recover money, regardless of whether they filed a paper claim. Workers would receive a few thousand dollars each on average. Koh has previously approved separate settlements totaling $20 million reached by Walt Disney Co’s Lucasfilm and Pixar units, and by Intuit Inc.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
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Did Apple and Google make an anti-poaching deal? – August 9, 2009
I am concerned about the DOJ’s ability to dispense justice fairly at all!
A settlement has been agreed in which all parties involved have expressed their approval, what more does she want?
She approves of the inclusion of plaintiffs who did not file papers, yet is not sure whether to approve or not??
It was easy to dispense justice (sic) against Apple inc. and the publishing houses in the e-book trial, will it be easy to dispense fair justice for the publishers against Amazon in its actions against publishing houses and the authors whom they contract?
Oh how easy it must be for the person sitting on that chair to lament about fairness or unfairness when they themselves will never appear on the dock for meting out unfair judgments.
Lucy Koh was appointed to the federal bench by Barack Hussein Obama. She is hard core leftist with no respect for individual property or the free enterprise system, as you would expect from an Obama appointee. She will do as she pleases with Apple, a big capitalistic enterprise, which she will probably punish repeatedly for its success, as you would expect from a hard core socialist Obama judge.
This is what you get from electing a guy who hates America. Apple is an American success story. Obama does not like things that do well that are not government run. He does like successful government operations like the IRS and the Veterans Administration.
Expect more pain for Apple from Hanging Judge Koh.
Moron!
You did not contradict anything I said so I assume you are one of those who voted for this lazy imbecile communist. You get your news from Jon Stewart, which is actually better than the DNC propaganda outlets of Brian Williams, Diane Sawyer or George Stephenopoulos. All Democrat talking heads posing as journalists.
You are an excellent moron.
Right, you red neck, fat belly, Viagra addict, burnt brain brat.
Go clean your tooth, hillbilly!
Kent, sorry to hear that you hate so much. But just a thought here……. people are individuals. They can make bad decisions, make bad social choices, and even be ass *oles. But trying to link them to anyone else you dislike looks really lame.
Remember the 6 degrees of connection rule. You are most likely linked to President Obama within those same six links…
Just a thought.
Obama is the one who hates. He hates America and is now “transforming” it into a socialist oligarchy. I love America and the Constitution and respect for the law and private property and I celebrate successful people, like Steve Jobs, who make a lot of money by doing very creative stuff. They earned their money and it is not the governments to take from them.
Obama and you hate all this good stuff that is America. You are the hater.
anonymous coward kent: Is there anything your precious Neo-Con-Job corrupted Republican party values about the USA, beside money and power and screwing the peasants to feed the overlords? Is there?
Neo-Feudalism is their entire goal. And they’ve been substantially successful, haven’t they! Dickheads. And guess whose one of their little pet peasants. Quisling little YOU. Or haven’t you noticed?
Anonymous kent…
Judge Koh appears to be a really bad judge, at least in recent cases involving Apple. She is not the only bad judge to be appointed in this country, and she won’t be the last. That is not a good thing – we all want our appointed officials to be of the highest caliber – it is simply an acknowledgement that mistakes are made in any system designed and run by humans. Fortunately, the judicial system includes the right to appeal, etc., that prevents any one person from dictating a final judgment.
I am sure that every President has appointed bad judges. Pick any President that you really admire (Reagan?), then perform some research. You will find mistakes (Iran-Contra?). That does not mean that the POTUS “hates America.” You sound like a loon when you make statements like that.
When extremist haters like you and Fwhatever start talking like this, all I hear is “blah blah blah, Obama, blah blah blah.”
Romney or McCain would not have been exponentially better as POTUS. Frankly, the gridlock imposed by Congress is the primary problem in this country. And you know (but won’t admit) who is mostly responsible for that.
Congratulations, kent. I allowed you to waste another five minutes of my life.
Obama is the worst President ever. And he is breaking the law every day.
Your life is a waste so I just gave you what you do anyway.
You president G.W. Bush was ALSO ‘the worst President ever. He broke the law every day. Your trolling PoliTard life is a waste if you think there’s ANYTHING the Retardlicans have to offer that isn’t just as f*ked up as anything the Democraps have to offer.
Shot by both sides.
Wake up!
“YOUR….” Coffee magnet activated ztztztzt–>
I don’t think you’re the ‘kent’ I know as you sound desperately PoliTard. Apparently, you’ve have voted for the OTHER clown who ran against the Obama. Then we’d have been… JUST AS F*KED, but in another way.
Two asshats, choose one. Two treasonous political parties, choose one. To hell with BOTH.
As for Koh: A detriment to the bench, proven time and again. It’s to the point where she opens her mouth and you KNOW she’s going to say something ridiculous. Good gawd. (O_o)
Crappy, unqualified individuals are what you get in these positions when affirmative action is invoked. Oh wait, she’s Asian – they don’t count as “true minorities” and therefore are except from affirmative action. Only the lazy and ignorant are eligible.
Judge Koh will stick it to Apple any which way she can until someone makes her aware of the real meaning of justice other than income redistribution.