August 20th, 2009
The brain drain from Apple to Palm
Bloomberg reports that Palm rebuffed a request from Apple CEO Steve Jobs in August 2007 that the companies stop hiring each others employees. Then Palm CEO Ed Colligan (pictured left) dismissed Jobs’ proposal saying:
Your proposal that we agree that neither company will hire the others employees, regardless of the individual’s desires, is not only wrong, it is likely illegal.
CNet lists some of Apple’s recent high-ranking defections to Palm:
- June 2007 – Fred Anderson, former Apple CFO, joined Palm’s board of directors
- June 2007 – Jon Rubenstein (pictured right), former head of Apple’s iPod division in 2005, becomes Palm Chairman
- June 2009 – Jon Rubenstein named Palm CEO, replacing Colligan
- August 2009 – Jeff Zwerner, former Apple staffer became Palm’s brand design chief
Also headed to Palm are Senior VP of Product Development Mike Bell and Public Relations chief Lynn Fox.
Since non-compete agreements are illegal in California, what can Apple do to stop Palm from poaching its engineers? At what point does brain drain turn into patent, trademark and ethics concerns?
Jason D. O'Grady is the editor of PowerPage.org, which has been publishing daily mobile technology news since December 1995. For disclosures on Jason's industry affiliations, click here or to view Jason's full profile click here.
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