Ed Colligan, the former chief executive of Palm, reportedly rejected an offer years ago from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs to agree to not hire each others' employees.
The information comes from a U.S. Justice Department investigation that obtained communications between the two CEOs, according to Bloomberg. After rejecting the offer, Colligan reportedly told Jobs that what he proposed was “likely illegal.”
The conversation took place in August 2007, just after the launch of the iPhone, and when Palm appointed Apple's former senior engineering VP, Jon Rubinstein, as executive chairman.
According to the communications between the two, Jobs told Colligan he was concerned that Rubinstein, as a former Apple employee, was recruiting existing Apple employees. “We must do whatever we
