Steve Jobs allegedly threatened to hit Palm with a patent suit if it hired any Apple employees

Late Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs was known for being insanely competitive, but this takes things to a whole new level. Reuters reports that documents unearthed in a civil suit against Apple, Google (GOOG) and Intel (INTC) show that Jobs once allegedly “threatened to file a patent lawsuit against Palm if that company’s chief executive didn’t agree to refrain from poaching Apple employees.” Former Palm CEO Edward Colligan, who described the feud with Jobs in a sworn statement, claims he told Jobs that such proposed collusion between the two companies was “likely illegal” and that he wasn’t intimidated by Jobs’ threats. Colligan provided his statement as part of a lawsuit filed by five tech industry employees who allege that major tech firms have engaged in a series of gentlemen’s agreements to not poach one another’s workers.

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