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While Eric Schmidt and Steve Jobs may have had a “no poaching” agreement before, it seems like it is no longer in place. According to Venture Beat, Google has just hired Simon Prakash, Apple Senior Director of product integrity.
Prakash worked with Apple for eight years, and most recently was in charge of quality control for all Apple products. We do not yet know what Simon will be bringing to the table, though, or if it will be related to Android. Google has hired him to work in a “secret project.”
It is said that this “secret project” is ran by Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Sergey has worked with Google on multiple secret projects. With Android being one of the main products for Google, though, we hope this man can work on something related to our favorite mobile OS.
Apple is very well known for product quality, probably making Simon a great asset to the company. Who knows, he might be getting involved in the Nexus program.
Either way, the Department of Justice is investigating both companies, since it seems they might have agreed on not “poaching” each other’s employees (along with other companies). We will have to wait and see how things work out, and what this “secret project” is all about.
We love speculation, though. So hit the comments! What do you guys think this project is all about?
[Source: Venture Beat Via: The Verge]
Google,Moto,Samsung,and Crapple merge to form Voltron. Then fail and implode. we all go back to those mid 90s nokia light up phones with 900000000000000000000000000000 cases and motherfucking classic green screen SNAKE.
LOLOLO
Snake was the best phone game I ever played.
This would be cool, but he sounds like a hardware control guy. Google does not produce any hardware, leaving me wondering what he is going to be doing at Google (I highly doubt Google will suddenly jump into the hardware game without a very large push)…
Hello? Motorola? they WILL be jumping into the hardware game, and that’s a pretty good chance moto will be reinvented by google. I have very high hopes for the new motorola.
Motorola will act as a completely separate entity, don’t get your hopes up (I also wish Google would do more with Motorola btw).
I liked the Motorola hardware like the V3i. It was always the software that let them down.
It could be for a Motorola project. I would love them to do something good with the chromebook.
I don’t know anything. But I would be suspicious that he was a spy from Apple. As Apple have a history at stealing other peoples inventions. Just look at the mouse, only happens that Microsoft beat them to it. The smartphone was Microsoft or Nokia the tablet was Microsoft. Steve Jobs took technology and simplified it. This constant patent wars is just going to have casualties. I have had enough of one company ruling the operating systems. Microsoft must have a whole department for thinking up error messages. Maybe its good to have top execs changing company’s and moving ideas.
Mouse and desktop came from Xerox, Apple bought rights to it, Microsoft provided software to Apple. I think that history is interesting.
Apple will probably sue google
Could be voice recognition as in Majel.
Microsoft was founded 7 years after the mouse was presented by Doug Engelbart (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfIgzSoTMOs – the greatest demo of all time).
But I love your line about Microsoft’s error message department.
Don’t see how this guy would really make any real change. Given the only thing Apple clearly does better than all others is advertising, they should have pouched Apple’s chief propaganda officer.
Apple puts out a product and their commercials make the uninformed believe that its the 1st and one and only!
My guess for the secret project would be for a successful nexus tablet.
Haha even there own employees are getting tired of the same crap year after year
THIS IS SPARTA!!!!!!!!! no working with the enemy…
poor joke aside
a lot of questions on why is rummaging through my head about this.
why would Apple employees want to leave for any other company. I think Apple employees don’t get enough stock options or stock grants. Google treats its employees better than Apple. The success of Apple is not due to Steve Jobs alone, it is due to all its employees and their employees should be allowed to partake of the material benefits via stock grants.
Extremely stressful working conditions, being on teams so secretive you can’t discuss anything you’re working on with anyone else in Apple, and wages that really aren’t all that competitive. Steve Jobs created an environment where everything was secretive, and even casually mentioning what you were doing would land you on the unemployment line. Google, on the other hand, is a much more friendly place to work at, so it makes perfect sense for someone like this guy to abandon the walled garden.
Geez! I dont know why people are so surprised about an Apple employee joining Google or even vice versa. And then some have their conspiracy theories about corporate espionage too :D
The whole poaching thing is illegal actually, companies like Universal and Disney get in trouble for it all the time and there is a fine for it. Anywho if someone from Apple wants to work at Google, Google does not have to right to reject them because they work for the competition.
What ever this secret project is ill wait till the GOOGLE Conference start. I currently have the Atrix and save my upgrade till they announce this TOP SECRET project comes out.
It may well not have anything to do with Android, so it seems kind of silly to wait on it.
F–K this bullshit wtf by google
Wtf by google
I can’t imagine that Simon Prakash wasn’t required to sign a Non-Compete at Apple. Seems that the only way Google could hire him would be if his job was completely non-related to what he was doing at Apple – even then, it seems like it would be in the “grey area.”
Non-compete agreements are not enforceable in California. Apple could sue, but they would lose if Google decided to defend the case.
Here’s a reference to an article about non-competes in CA:
http://boingboing.net/2008/08/08/california-supreme-c-1.html
It’s a lucky thing for these guys that Obama needs their money this year. Otherwise they’d all be in jail. This is an open-and-shut case.
Judging from the fact that he was was a big shot at apple, google is probably trying to develop new products AVOIDING an more impending Apple confrontations. I’m sure he’s legally not allowed to say yes this is what apple is working on, but he can say, hey, there’s a pending patent on that let’s move another direction. “Hey Eric, can they sue us for this.” “Nope.”