DOJ Probes Hiring at Tech Firms
By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO and JUSTIN SCHECK
The Justice Department is investigating whether a number of large U.S. companies violated antitrust laws by establishing agreements not to recruit each other's employees, according to people briefed on the investigation.
Members of the department have sought information from companies in the technology and biotechnology sectors, including Google Inc., Apple Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp., these people said, adding the inquiry appears to be in an early stage. It is unclear which of the companies may be targets of the investigation.
A Google spokesman confirmed the company has been contacted about the investigation and is cooperating. A spokeswoman for Yahoo declined comment. An Apple spokesman couldn't immediately be reached.
A Justice Department spokeswoman declined comment.
The inquiry, reported earlier by the Washington Post, is the latest sign that the Obama administration is living up to its promise to enforce antitrust laws more aggressively. And it is further evidence that it intends to keep tech companies, in particular, in its sights.
The DOJ continues to investigate whether Google's proposed settlement with authors and publishers to resolve a copyright dispute over its book search service violates antitrust laws, according to people familiar with the matter. And the Federal Trade Commission has inquired about whether the fact that two directors--Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt and former Genentech Inc. CEO Art Levinson--sit on both the Apple and Google board violates antitrust laws.
The latest investigation casts a wider net, looking at the hiring practices of companies in multiple industries, say people familiar with the inquiry.
Businesses frequently agree not to poach each other's employees as part of business deals or merger agreements and those pacts don't appear to violate antitrust laws, according to one person familiar with the investigation. Instead, the Justice Department is looking into whether companies establish blanket agreements not to do so, which may be considered collusion, this person said.
source: The Wall Street journal
