Palm CEO Rejected Apple's Jobs' Call for Truce on Poaching Employees

From DailyTech: When it comes to hardware, Apple only has one legitimate competitor in the smart phone market -- Palm. Palm's Pre is the only smartphone besides the iPhone to support multi-touch, and its also the only other smartphone to be able to be able to easily sync with iTunes. Both of these assets reportedly came thanks in part to the inside knowledge former Apple engineers brought to Palm.

Apple, which has poached employees employees from Palm in the past (including during the development of the various iPods and iPhone), nonetheless, was not to happy about the launch of the Pre. It tried to block the phone out of iTunes only to see Palm outmaneuver it again and let the Pre back in.

Back in 2007, Apple's Chief Executive Office, Steve Jobs, reached out to former Palm CEO Ed Colligan and proposed a moratorium on the two companies stealing each other's employees. Mr. Colligan reportedly rejected Mr. Job's proposal, saying that it was not only wrong, but "probably illegal".

Palm's smartphone team is headed by Jon Rubinstein, a former Apple veteran who had headed the company's pivotal iPod unit. Mr. Rubenstein was promoted to Palm's CEO in June, succeeding Mr. Colligan.

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