Four big tech companies agree to pay a total of 324 million dollars to settle a non-employment deal

Some employees of Silicon Valley technology companies filed a lawsuit in 2011 accusing companies of "not hiring" agreements between firms such as Apple, Google, Adobe and Intel to prevent wage wars, thereby depressing workers ' wages. They planned to ask the companies for 3 billion dollars in compensation, according to the court documents revealed that the amount of compensation claimed amounted to $9 billion.

The incident continued to heat up with the recent revelations about the exchange of e-mails between jobs and Schmidt. In an e-mail, Jobs was furious that Google had hired a former Apple employee, and Google's current executive chairman, Schmidt, eventually sacked the employee. Mr. Jobs then forwarded the e-mail to Apple's senior human resources director, with a smiley face.

Another email showed that a Google HR executive asked about the "Don't dig Corner" agreement, Schmidt suggested to be cautious, hoping to reach an oral agreement, not to leave behind the lawsuit.

The e-mails will allow several technology companies to face a very unfavourable situation in the trial, which is scheduled to take place at the end of May, with about 64,000 employees in the plaintiff's court.

Apple, Google and Intel are currently refusing to comment on the matter, and an Adobe spokeswoman said the company was not involved in any of the wrong things, but agreed to settle "to avoid the uncertainty, expense and distraction of the trial." The four companies will agree on the amount they pay, probably based on the number of plaintiffs per company.

Previously, Disney's Pixar, Lucas and Intuit, which had also been sued, had agreed to settle, with Disney agreeing to pay $9 million and Intuit to pay 11 million dollars.

These settlements must be allowed by the magistrates of the District Court, Lucy Kohde. The Intuit and Disney case will be held next week to determine whether the final pass. The four companies that agreed to settle in Thursday will finalize the settlement plan by May 27. It is unclear, however, whether the amount of compensation will be announced for each company.

Not all big Silicon Valley companies have been involved in "coo" agreements, such as Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, which rejected Google's offer of "no hiring" in 2008.

In addition, Jobs threatened to sue Palm for violating Apple's patents if it did not stop hiring Apple employees. However, when Palm CEO Edward Colligan responded to Jobs ' claim that his request was illegal, Palm would not accept the threat.