Palm Rejected Apple's No-Poaching Plea

Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal reports: CEO Steve Jobs was reportedly rebuffed two years ago by former Palm Inc. CEO Ed Colligan when he sought an agreement not to hire away each other's workers.

Bloomberg reported the exchange Thursday after it said it was able to review the communications between the two CEOs.

The news service quoted from what it said was a Jobs' communication to Colligan in which he said: "We must do whatever we can to stop this."

It said Colligan told Jobs such an agreement would be wrong and "likely illegal."

The story follows reports earlier this summer that the U.S. Justice Department is probing such collusion among Silicon Valley tech companies. Bloomberg reported that Palm hasn't been approached in that investigation.

Bloomberg said the communications it saw came just after Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) introduced the iPhone and Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) hired away Apple executive Jon Rubinstein to develop its smartphones. Colligan stepped down as Palm's CEO in June.