In a rare glimpse into the early rivalry between Apple and Google, recently surfaced emails reveal that Google once asked Steve Jobs for permission to hire a former Apple executive to lead a new engineering team in Paris. The exchange, part of the High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation court records, shows how the plan ultimately unraveled.
On March 28, 2006, Alan Eustace, Google’s senior vice president of engineering, emailed Steve Jobs to request approval to hire Jean-Marie Hullot, who had left Apple in 2005 after serving as CTO of its applications division. Eustace assured Jobs that Hullot respected Apple and would abide by its non-compete terms, and that Google would drop the plan if Jobs had serious concerns.
Jobs replied 11 days later, first asking what Hullot would work on, and stating, “We would have a problem if it is related to cell phone handsets.” After Google clarified Hullot’s role, Jobs agreed. However, trouble arose when Hullot wanted to bring four former Apple engineers with him. Jobs objected and advised Google not to hire them. Google complied, and eventually abandoned the Paris center plans. Hullot never joined Google; he later founded the photo startup Fotonauts, which became Fotopedia.
The emails emerged from the High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation case, which alleged that Apple, Google, Intel, and Adobe conspired not to poach each other’s workers. The lawsuit involved about 64,000 engineers. Judge Lucy Koh rejected an initial $324.5 million settlement as too low, approving a $415 million settlement in September 2015, equating to roughly $5,770 per worker.
This episode underscores how closely Steve Jobs guarded Apple’s talent and offers a window into the fierce competition between the two tech giants nearly two decades ago.