Google poaches Apple exec

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Seemingly putting to rest any rumored “no poaching” agreement between Silicon Valley’s tech giants, Google has hired away a senior Apple director for work on a secret project.

According to VentureBeat, Google hired Simon Prakash, senior director of product integrity, and an Apple staffer for over eight years, to work on a project purportedly being headed by Google co-founder Sergey Brin himself. Before his employment at Apple, Prakash was director of engineering design validation at Cielo Communications and prior to that, a reliability and field applications manager at 3Com.

Though it isn’t known what Prakash will be working on at Google, his previous experience was in quality control for all Apple products, raising speculation that he may be destined to oversee any Google hardware projects currently in the works. Last year, Google bought Motorola Mobility, prompting rumors that the firm would start building its own hardware.


The move is especially interesting in light of a recent investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into claims that Pixar, Lucasfilm, Intel, Apple, Google and Intuit were parties to a secret deal meant to prevent the poaching of each other’s employees. Such a deal would be considered anticompetitive and illegal.