Emails between Facebook and Google released in court filings show that Facebook, the number-one social networking site, has been able to resist entreaties to stop poaching employees, according to Reuters.
The new chief operating officer at Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg, was contacted by a former colleague at Google via email not long after starting at the social networking site. Tensions between Facebook and Google continue to rise as the aggressive recruitment of Google employees by Facebook continues.
Jonathan Rosenberg, a top executive at Google, told Sandberg that the tensions between the two companies reached the “Defcon 2” level. This was back in August of 2008.
“Fix this problem. Propose that you will substantially lower the rate at which you hire people from us,” Rosenberg told Sandberg in an email. “Then make sure that happens.”
Sandberg turned down the entreaties by Sandberg, claiming that she thought Google had limited no-solicitation agreements with businesses where they share board members. She did not think the company had blanket no-hire policies with other businesses.
“I declined at that time to limit Facebook’s recruitment or hiring of Google employees,” Sandberg wrote in a sworn declaration.
The response from Sandberg and Facebook turned the company into a witness in a massive antitrust lawsuit filed by tech workers against companies in the Silicon Valley. Because of this response, Facebook is not classified as a defendant in the case.
The trial is scheduled to begin sometime in May.
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