[smakz]

Honestly this seems like a cash grab from the federal government more then anything.

Knowing friends who worked at these companies, they never felt the anti competitive pressure, and several moved between the companies several times.

Most likely, the government found some clauses buried in some contracts that said in a foot note that the companies would agree not to cold call employees in their own respective companies. I don't even think it's unreasonable to have a contract along those lines if engineers are working directly with each other.

Although on the flip side, I think it might be valuable to send a message that anti-competitive agreements in general won't be tolerated and it's good to know that there are people watching this sort of thing.

[j_baker]

I have yet to see any article actually say that there was any monetary part to the settlement. It basically just said "We promise not to do it again for 5 years".

[parallax7d]

I don't see anything wrong with these alleged agreements, per se, but it sets a terrible anti competitive precedent that is all manner of bad for employee marketability. It would be difficult to sus out the truth of what these types of agreements actually do behind the closed doors of these company's HR departments.

[jbjohns]

Do you believe in the free market? If so, you really don't see anything wrong with companies conspiring together to constrict that market for employees?

[parallax7d]

I'm not sure you understood my comment.