
Bigger Settlement Said to Be Reached in Silicon Valley Antitrust Case - denzil_correa
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/15/technology/silicon-valley-antitrust-case-settlement-poaching-engineers.html?ref=business&_r=0
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rayiner
For people saying the settlement isn't enough. That's probably true, but it's
not a bad settlement as class actions go. Class action litigation has a number
of problems, partly because plaintiffs' attorneys working pure contingency
have little incentive to see claims all the way through, and partly because
judges and juries are skeptical of claims against large, respected companies.

In this case, there were a number of challenges. The first of which was that
the DOJ settled with a slap on the wrist.[1] That's a very strong signal to
both the court and jurors that the claims aren't a slam-dunk. Second, remember
that in a civil case you don't just have to prove that the defendant did
something wrong. You have to prove every element of the often multi-facted
claim. Finally, there's a lot of back-and-forth with experts. Defendants can
afford to hire the world's leading economists to say that the damages were
less than claimed. Plaintiffs will have experts, but they're unlikely to be
able to front the money for them to do as thorough a job.

$412 million would be over 10% the plaintiffs' experts estimated damages of $3
billion. That's not an atypical recovery in a class action settlement.

[1] Contrast this to the LCD price fixing cases, where the DOJ's levying $500+
million in fines resulted in big civil settlements.

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staunch
They suppressed the entire market. They should pay tens of billions to the
workers in the affected market. The individuals responsible should at the very
least be fired!

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gojomo
But it was a windfall to every company not in the no-poach cartel, and made
more talent available to startups and small companies.

And then, the economic benefits of talent-outside-the-giants flowed (via
early-employee equity) to many of the same people who "lost out" on big-
company salary-bidding wars.

The effects of such collusion on "the entire market" are thus pretty murky. If
you've worked with any ex-Apple, ex-Google, etc people – you may already have
been a net-beneficiary!

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ashark
On the other hand, more Apple and Google folks may have left and founded their
own companies if their salaries had been higher.

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simonebrunozzi
Then, please give me 30% of your salary right now. Within 1-2 years, you'll
start a great company and you will thank me for this.

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Gracana
I think you've misread the parent comment.

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nostromo
Here's a fine that might catch their attention: All companies involved should
receive no new H1Bs for a duration equal to the time they had this illegal
arrangement.

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wavefunction
They would just hire sub-contractors who could provide them with h1bers but I
like the cut of your jib.

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rdl
The $100 checks are kind of insulting IMO. I'd rather see criminal sanctions
or at least fines against the individuals responsible. Any fines would make
more sense as going into a training program to expand the labor pool.

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jgalt212
I agree. Fines are B.S. We need scalps. Sending boldface names to jail will
certainly cause future potential bad actors to think twice before
transgressing.

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Geekette
Seriously surprising to hear that money-conscious lawyers might agree to such
a piddly amount ($415M) from 4 companies whose collective market cap is over 1
trillion dollars. This is palatable only if it comes with significant
sanctions and admission of wrongdoing, which of course, is highly doubtful.

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pmorici
You have to look at it from the lawyers perspective. 30% or whatever their cut
is of $415 Million is a huge pay day for them. Why go through the time and
hassle of seeing the case through when you can have a huge payday now with no
more work.

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yuhong
I really hope Apple/Google will do admission of wrongdoing with an apology
letter, as I suggested before.

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kylelibra
Offering to pay $415M, up from original offer of $324M which a judge rejected.

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thesagan
Since I'm not an insider, I won't argue the merits and difficulties of
extracting a settlement in a situation such as this. But if I were a
shareholder looking at this not-very-surprising and easy-to-stomach number, I
would simply see this as having been an acceptable cost of doing business.

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ChuckMcM
I got a check from this (I was in the 'Google' class) so I wonder if they will
update that, or if by cashing it I released my claim. Interesting.

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thirdtruck
Still waiting for my check. Wondering if I didn't miss the window for that.

