What does “NP” stand for in the title? My google search turned up nothing.
I'm guessing "no problem".
Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]
51–60 of 442 posts
Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]
#52"That evidence does suggest the engineers drew on knowledge and skills they gained from Hooked to develop a product for their new employer––but California’s policy favoring free mobility for employees specifically allows that. (See Whyte v. Schlage Lock Co. (2002) 101Cal.App.4th 1443, 1464 [rejecting the “inevitable disclosure” doctrine, under which a claim for trade secret misappropriation is stated if an employee’s…
I don't understand why there is no Silicon Valley in Europe then
I believe Europe can create its own SV by following the USA's route: the Europe's equivalent of DoD (which has access to unlimited funds, tens of trillions of euros), needs to come up with a grand multi-decade project and invest into companies that are going to work on related sub-projects. For USA it was the worldwide surveillance system, but for Europe it may be something else, like ITER (but on a bigger scale) or micropayments system (I don't know if it would be big enough). That grand project needs to be useful and reachable, though. One thing I'm certain about is that VC-style micro investments into micro projects with micro objectives will bring only micro results.
Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]
#53Kind of tangential, but why is there a concurring opinion here? It seems like it doesn't argue things particularly differently from the majority opinion, and it reaches all the same conclusions for (as far as I can tell) all the same reasons.
I assume that my non-lawyer eyes are missing something, so I'm curious what it is.
Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]
#54Two things, really: if you turn down an acquisition that you feel your employees supported, you don’t get to do the “surprised pikachu face” when you turn it down and they go work there anyway. Secondly, it’s presented as if these engineers exfiltrated special knowledge with them... isn’t it fair to also give them the benefit of the doubt in that the same employees may have crucially developed the software themselves…
> Representatives from each company met to explore a possible acquisition but Apple ultimately passed.
The pass wasn't after the initial attempt, though. You make it sound like Apple initiated the process, the CEO accepted, and then Apple reneged, with nothing in between. Very misleading for anyone who doesn't read the article and just takes your comment at face value.
Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]
#55"That evidence does suggest the engineers drew on knowledge and skills they gained from Hooked to develop a product for their new employer––but California’s policy favoring free mobility for employees specifically allows that. (See Whyte v. Schlage Lock Co. (2002) 101Cal.App.4th 1443, 1464 [rejecting the “inevitable disclosure” doctrine, under which a claim for trade secret misappropriation is stated if an employee’s…
I don't understand why there is no Silicon Valley in Europe then
Because Europe is not at all competitive for tech talent. Fresh graduates earn significantly more money in America than senior-level developers in Europe, with the quasi-exceptions of London and Switzerland (neither in the EU).
Why would European developers allow themselves to be shafted out of millions of dollars by staying in Europe?
Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]
#56Once the employees know that their CEO is "shopping" the company, it seems like the CEO should have known they would be looking towards the exits (unless, of course, they had lots of equity which would turn into $$ once the acquisition happened, which case they would likely stay put). It was not only kind of sleazy to try to, essentially, sell your employees to another company as if they are your property, but also n…
It was Apple that ultimately backed out of the "acqui-hire", not the target company's CEO.
Edit: Nope, I was wrong here. I think the rest of this comment is still relevant though.
And for all we know, it may have been her investors that encouraged (demanded?) her to go the route of "selling" the employees[0]. It appears the company would be winding down and they stood to benefit by recouping some of their investment.
I can't see how she would benefit. But... who knows.
[0] Just typing the phrase "selling the employees" makes me feel icky.
Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]
#57"That evidence does suggest the engineers drew on knowledge and skills they gained from Hooked to develop a product for their new employer––but California’s policy favoring free mobility for employees specifically allows that. (See Whyte v. Schlage Lock Co. (2002) 101Cal.App.4th 1443, 1464 [rejecting the “inevitable disclosure” doctrine, under which a claim for trade secret misappropriation is stated if an employee’s…
> Which is why Silicon Valley is in California
I don't think that's the reason -- California's labor market hasn't always been so fair and for that reason it makes complete sense why the court ruled in Apple's favor.
Apple, Google, Adobe and some other companies used to have anti-poaching agreements with each other. But, then the courts found that to be unfair to the labor market (people) and the companies settled for $415 million:
https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-google-others-settle-anti-po...
So, now they're doing the opposite and people are upset? I mean, I guess so, it obviously hurt this company. But, in fairness, they did try to do the right thing and in the end they had to hire the people they wanted to hire because that's what the courts told them was the right thing to do.
Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]
#58It's a bit like the old (apocryphal, all the famous people who supposedly said this almost certainly didn't) joke: "GROUCHO (to woman seated next to him at an elegant dinner party): Would you sleep with me for ten million dollars? WOMAN (giggles and responds): Oh, Groucho, of course I would. GROUCHO; How about doing it for fifteen dollars? WOMAN (indignant): Why, what do you think I am? GROUCHO: That’s already been e…
I've always heard that quote attributed to Churchill so I Googled it. Interesting read.
Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand why there is no Silicon Valley in Europe then
I believe Europe can create its own SV by following the USA's route: the Europe's equivalent of DoD (which has access to unlimited funds, tens of trillions of euros), needs to come up with a grand multi-decade project and invest into companies that are going to work on related sub-projects. For USA it was the worldwide surveillance system, but for Europe it may be something else, like ITER (but on a bigger scale) or…
I think many/most people ignore this, that some of the mega defense projects spawned many companies that led to huge growth in tech industries. The VHSIC program was one of them. I saw dozens of people from the big defense tech company I was working at go on to found design software companies after their experience designing VHSIC chips, chips that are small by today's standards put pushed the limits of design tools at that time. Same thing was happening at the other VHSIC contractors.
Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand why there is no Silicon Valley in Europe then
Aversion to risk. I was told by German entrepreneurs that they can get funding only when they give bank/VC/investor a collateral of the same value or if they are already profitable and don't need it anymore.
Tolerance for risk by entrepreneurs is low too. I used to read the German blog ,,Gründerszene’’ — “founder scene” but all the companies they covered were just retail shops without a physical presence: organic oats on the web! Nothing technical and nothing high growth. Tragic.