Wow, it seems like Apple’s making a lot of news in our site today, this is the third time they’ve made it to our news list. 🙂
Anyway, Apple and Palm’s apparently started bickering two years ago – August of 2007 to be exact.
According to Bloomberg News, Ed Colligan – Palm’s CEO at that time – rejected a proposal from Apple chief Steve Jobs to refrain from recruiting and hiring each other’s employees.
Apparently, Jobs was worried that he’d lose his key employees to Palm and said “we must do whatever we can to stop this.” This proposal, according to Colligan, was ill-considered.
“Your proposal that we agree that neither company will hire the other’s employees, regardless of the individual’s desires, is not only wrong, it is likely illegal,” Colligan told Jobs, according to the communications reviewed by Bloomberg.
When you look at Palm today, you’ll see that a few number come from Apple. Two months before that unspecified “communications” between the two companies’ executives, Palm had announced that Fred Anderson (former Apple CFO) would be joining its board of directors and Jon Rubenstein (retired iPod division head) would join as executive chairman of the board.
Rubenstein is now Palm’s CEO, replacing Colligan in June of this year.
Hmmmn, I wonder why all these have anything to do with the two companies most recent issue where Apple refuses to allow Palm’s Pre to have access to their iTunes. 😉
