Comments on: Tech giants reportedly targeted in DOJ recruiting probe

Apple, Google, and Yahoo are being investigated for possible antitrust violations over negotiating the recruiting and hiring of one another's employees, The Washington Post reports.

[gbelk08]

In this economy where people are being laid off and become unemployed the next minute, it's oddly refreshing to see the brilliant engineers and employees holding power over the giant corporations.

[Drummer16161616]

People that are an asset to a company are never fired...duh

[BMG4ME]

Nice reply Drummer. I'd also reverse gbelk's claim, and say if people weren't so willing to "hold power" then perhaps companies would feel it so acceptable to lay people off. As I have said before, much hypocrisy here - employees can leave whenever they want to but employers are expected to hold jobs open for life.

[BMG4ME]

Correction to previous post: "then perhaps companies would NOT feel it so acceptable"

[CPCcurmudgeon]

Actually Drummer16161616, people who are an asset to a company can be let go under certain circumstances. They certainly can be laid off in difficult economic times, such as now. Even in a strong economy, they can be laid off after a merger or an acquisition when functions are consolidated.

[svgtom]

Actually, people who are assets to their company are quite often laid off. The problem is the upper management is usually clueless as to who does what and only pay attention to the useless people who brown nose.

[alegr]

@BMG4ME:
"As I have said before, much hypocrisy here - employees can leave whenever they want to but employers are expected to hold jobs open for life."

That's how it is there in France. No wonder they have such high unemployment.

[Vegaman_Dan]

I'm rather surprised Microsoft isn't included in those being investigated as I'm sure they are guilty of the same thing. It seems like a common business practice these days.

[ikramerica--2008]

Who says they aren't? It's industry wide. They just decided to mention Yahoo, Google and Microsoft by name for some reason.

[flhu]

With any DOJ tech sector probe, Microsoft is just a given.

[make_or_break]

MSFT seldom tries to steal away talent while the targeted person is still working for the firm in question. They DO have a habit of hiring former employees of other companies, like Jan Pederson formerly of Yahoo and Amazon's A9 search engine for specific programs like their own search program. Instead, Redmond has a more expensive habit of buying up companies and tech that they don't already have.

The Washington Post article specifically named Google, Apple and Yahoo in their article, as well as one or two lesser firms. If indeed MSFT was also targeted in this investigation RIGHT NOW, I suspect the Post would NOT have left that out.

What I REALLY wonder is whether firms like IBM and Microsoft--the ones who are the "victims" of key employee-filching--are actually the ones BEHIND the instigating of this investigation.

[jwant_fp]

I agree with ikramerica.

[ewwwwwwwww]

I'm so commenting omg