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Judge rejects $324.5M settlement over Apple, Google hiring

reuters.com

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Re: Judge rejects $324.5M settlement over Apple, Google hiring

#61

Post by LordKano »

8154730 wrote: post #35
peterb wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Even 3 decimal places wouldn't do justice to what they have done to us. Fuck those greedy bastards. If we were smart we would unionize ... err, sorry, I mean form a professional association to represent our interests. Like doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc.

So you think $324 billion dollars is appropriate? Wouldn't that essentially bankrupt all the companies involved? Who needs to worry about jobs when some of the biggest tech firms on the planet are wiped out! Not to mention that $324 billion spread across 64000 plaintiffs is $5 million each... You wouldn't be looking for that easy windfall, now would you?

If I go with your figure of 64,000 * 5,000,000, it's not the tech-apocalypse. It's not like that money is going straight into a crack pipe.

People with a lot of technical know-how would suddenly be set loose in a cash rich environment full of new millionaires who are looking to build their own empires.

That scenario could very well be a second dotcom boom.

More to the point, when one of the little people gets caught breaking the law, we don't question the consequences their punishment will have on any industry. These companies not only broke the law but were terrible corporate citizens.

Anything that doesn't hurt a lot will not be an appropriate punishment, it'll just be considered the cost of doing business.

Re: Judge rejects $324.5M settlement over Apple, Google hiring

#62

Post by oblio »

suprgeek wrote: post #50

I had two concerns when this was made public: that this was a laughably low amount considering the scope of the collusion and the time-scale over which it happened. that it looks like a good deal to all the companies concerned on two fronts - 325 Million is a pittance compared to what Apple, Google or Adobe make in a month. and the perception of the non-tech folks that this is about the rich whining about not getting…

Don't get your facts mixed up. 325 million is quite close to what Adobe makes per month. Google and Apple are 10x-20x50x bigger.

Re: Judge rejects $324.5M settlement over Apple, Google hiring

#65

Post by LordKano »

mcfunley wrote: post #6

Their collusion depressed the price of engineers generally. I spent a lot of the years in question ignoring recruiting emails from those companies, and this affected the amount my employer needed to pay me to do that. We should dig up the corpse of Steve Jobs and tar and feather it.

Rather than taking that route, I think we should be asking if his estate is liable for damages because of his illegal actions.

Re: Judge rejects $324.5M settlement over Apple, Google hiring

#66

Post by GFK_of_xmaspast »

8154730 wrote: post #35
peterb wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Even 3 decimal places wouldn't do justice to what they have done to us. Fuck those greedy bastards. If we were smart we would unionize ... err, sorry, I mean form a professional association to represent our interests. Like doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc.

So you think $324 billion dollars is appropriate? Wouldn't that essentially bankrupt all the companies involved? Who needs to worry about jobs when some of the biggest tech firms on the planet are wiped out! Not to mention that $324 billion spread across 64000 plaintiffs is $5 million each... You wouldn't be looking for that easy windfall, now would you?

"Wouldn't that essentially bankrupt all the companies involved?"

Don'd do the crime if you can't do the time, etc.

Re: Judge rejects $324.5M settlement over Apple, Google hiring

#67

Post by oblio »

cscurmudgeon wrote: post #24
smtddr wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I deleted the comment you've replied to because of the rapid downvotes... but screw it... I'm putting it back here. Who needs karma anyway... To the rest of the public, we probably look like complaining oil or Walmart execs. While the rest of the general public is dealing with insane commutes and thankless/soul-crushing jobs, we got things like "The Social Network" movie, San Francisco gentrification issues, fancy ca…

To the most of the world, even being poor in the US is a dream. They would never understand you parents complaining about tech people complaining.

Based on your account name I find it hard to take your comment seriously, but:

The 20s called. They want their cliches back. Most of the world is richer than US poor people these days. Of course, even if "most" are, there's still 1 billion people barely making enough for food, I'll grant you that.

Re: Judge rejects $324.5M settlement over Apple, Google hiring

#68

Post by georgemcbay »

yonran wrote: post #23
gopher1 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are 64,000 plaintiffs. Source: http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/08/judge-rejects-comically-low...

By the way, Judge Lucy Koh estimated that fees would be $82885000, so each of the 64466 class members would have received $3750, not quite the “essentially zero” that Alex at TechCrunch claims in the article you link. Source: Judge Koh’s order http://www.scribd.com/doc/236255928/Apple-Google-Intel-Adobe...

Relative to the damage caused, sorry but $3750 (minus the regular income tax that will be levied on top of it) does in fact work out to "essentially zero".

It amounts to basically saying "Yeah, we artificially suppressed wages for years and years, sorry. But take this.... it is about what you would have made working for us for a week (at the suppressed wage level we created, lol!)".

The lawyers will make out really, well, though, which is why I'm generally anti-class action but happy that this decision was made.

Note how the plaintiff's attorney actually argued against this ruling (to protect their very large slice of the bird-in-the-hand pie). If they were acting for the right reasons they would be pushing for a much higher sum (even if it meant more risk) in the hope of causing sufficient punitive damage to the companies involved to really change behavior. $325.4 million split among these companies is peanuts.

Re: Judge rejects $324.5M settlement over Apple, Google hiring

#69

Post by bkeroack »

The otherwise amazing book by Ben Horowitz (of Andreessen-Horowitz fame) called The Hard Thing About Hard Things has a chapter that basically lays out and encourages this type of illegal behavior (called "Is It Okay to Hire People from Your Friend's Company?").

It literally recommends that companies maintain a "do not hire" (aka "do not poach") list of other organizations from which HR is forbidden from recruiting. It also recommends calling the CEO of the other company on the down-low to ask permission before extending an offer.

It really disgusted me when I read it. Such smart people doing such dumb things, and encouraging would-be CEOs to do the same.

Re: Judge rejects $324.5M settlement over Apple, Google hiring

#70

Post by cscurmudgeon »

oblio wrote: post #67
cscurmudgeon wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To the most of the world, even being poor in the US is a dream. They would never understand you parents complaining about tech people complaining.

Based on your account name I find it hard to take your comment seriously, but: The 20s called. They want their cliches back. Most of the world is richer than US poor people these days. Of course, even if "most" are, there's still 1 billion people barely making enough for food, I'll grant you that.

> Most of the world is richer than US poor people these days. > Based on your account name I find it hard to take your comment seriously, but:

Yeah. If you spout shallow nonsense like this, I cannot take you seriously. But out of pity, here goes:

Don't let my username fool you. I am probably much younger than you are. I grew up poor in a third-world country in awe of the average American. Now, people like me are being called "techie scum" by the same kind of people I used to adore and envy.

My point is this: Don't hate on people more hardworking or just plain lucky than you are. If you are commenting on the internet you are probably at the top of the world.

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