Palm rather likes defecting Apple employees, actually

Two years ago, Bloomberg reports, Palm’s Ed Colligan rejected an offer from Steve Jobs to join Silicon Valley’s hiring cartel.

Jobs, Apple’s CEO, told Colligan he was concerned that Rubinstein was recruiting Apple employees. “We must do whatever we can to stop this,” Jobs said in the communications.

The details of these agreements not to hire one anothers’ employees aren’t known, but as the U.S. Justice Department is “investigating possible collusion,” it stands to reason that Palm would find reason to turn down the offer, then leak it to the press.

Colligan, you’ll remember, infamously dismissed the iPhone’s chances like so: “We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”

That’s true! It was more like waltzing in.

1. [dculberson]

   I’m pretty sure the only “fanboy” is in your fantasy world. The headline and article have no judgment of right or wrong in them.

2. [Robert Castillo]

   The most important sentence from TFA is probably the first one:

   Former Palm Inc. Chief Executive Officer Ed Colligan rejected a proposal from Apple Inc.’s Steve Jobs to refrain from hiring each other’s employees two years ago, calling it wrong and “likely illegal,” according to their communications.

   It takes a hell of a fanboy to read an article where Apple is accused of proposing an illegal agreement and then conclude that Palm is the bad guy in the story.

3. [hackbarth]

   “I’m pretty sure the only “fanboy” is in your fantasy world. The headline and article have no judgment of right or wrong in them.”

   When it clearly should have.