Apple, Adobe, Google and Intel pay 374 million euros because of secret agreements

Four tech giants finally settle a dispute for the amount of $ 415 million, or about 374 million euros, in a long-running personnel lawsuit. That was announced on Thursday. The companies had agreed not to ‘steal’ staff from each other.

The tech giants in question are Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe. The companies were taken to court by more than 64,000 employees. They accused the companies of making banned salary agreements to prevent the giants from stealing employees from each other.

The charges against the four tech companies were mainly based on a number of emails between former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and the late Apple founder Steve Jobs, who, according to the judge, was the spider in the web. In an email to Jobs, Schmidt said a Google recruiter would be fired after he offered an Apple employee a job at the search giant.

After a so-called class action lawsuit, the 64,000 employees managed to get compensation of 324 million dollars, converted 234 million euros. They agreed, but a judge later retracted. It ruled that the employees were entitled to more money and rejected the settlement.

In January, the companies announced that they would settle. The judge found that they had to come up with at least 380 million dollars – about 322 million euros. The companies are now putting $415 million on the table for the settlement. That amount is sufficient, with which the long-drawn-out case of more than four years is finally over, according to Reuters.