Trustbusters vs. Google

Honestly, what's an all-powerful, domineering Internet behemoth to do? What with antitrust probes into CEO Eric Schmidt's seat on the board of sometimes rival Apple and its Book Search revenue deal with publishers, Google (GOOG) just can't get no love from the Justice Department. Now, courtesy of the Washington Post, comes word that the feds are investigating whether Google and other tech companies illegally agreed not to recruit on another's top talent. Reporter Cecilia Kang writes that Justice is probing Google, Yahoo (YHOO), Apple (AAPL), Genentech (DNA), and others throughout the industry; Kang also quotes American Antitrust Institute president Albert Foer, who muses that private agreements not to poach from one another could be considered "collusive restraint on trade" and illegally secure the market power of the biggest boys in tech. So start penciling in those billable hours, all you suits in the Valley!

So far, the investigation is in its earliest possible stage. But that hasn't stopped tech watchers from getting all bloggy about it. CNet Night Editor Steven Musil points out that tech companies can be extremely proprietary about their talent. IBM (IBM), for example, sued its vice president Mark Papermaster after he jumped over to Apple, and Microsoft (MSFT) sued Google when the search giant poached Kai-Fu Lee to run its China research division.

On the other hand, ZDNet editor in chief Larry Dignan thinks there's a lot more smoke than fire here. "This DOJ fishing expedition has 'waste of time' written all over it," he writes. "Top talent isn't that restricted. Google execs go to Facebook. They go to AOL. Yahoo execs go to Microsoft. Microsoft execs go to Google. ... I'll be very interested to see what the Justice Department finds. Will it have reams of quantitative data proving hiring collusion? Or will it merely have a bunch of anecdotes by disgruntled middle managers that wish they could be poached?"

As if to prove Dignan's point, Advertising Age reports that AOL (TWX) head Tim Armstrong has just poached a top executive from Google, the very company he just left. Former Google North American Director of Agency Relations Erin Clift has left to become AOL's new senior vice president in charge of global sales development. Didn't Armstrong get the memo about talent thievery? Or is AOL, having been at the heart of the worst deal in the history of high tech, no longer in the club?