[thewisedude]

I see this as exploitation or price fixing in some way! Let me elaborate. Lets say Steve Jobs was paying an Engineer $100K at Apple. That skill set might have been worth atleast $120K to Palm. So Palm decides to hire him giving him a decent raise to join ( a good incentive to join). Lets say Palm gives him $120K. Now Apple which secretly knows that the engineer is worth a lot more to Apple will have to throw in more than Palm, say they will have to offer 150K$ to draw him back. Palm might again counter offer and this kind of bidding might go on until the Engineer get his true value(In a way market is deciding the engineer's worth) - But what is happening here is that Steve Jobs is kind of colluding with Palm to "fix the price" of the Engineer without market deciding so! There by saving/making a boatload of cash (money saved is money earned)! Sure, what I am saying is probably not the book definition of price fixing, but I would think that the motive/sentiment is very similar!