"The U.S. Department of Justice has begun an investigation into
the hiring practices of a number of Silicon Valley firms, including
Yahoo and Apple, alleging collusion in hiring practices, according
to several media reports.
"Citing unnamed sources, stories in the Washington Post and New
York Times say that the problem stems from an agreement among the
firms not to poach each other's high level talent. By doing so,
this keeps wages down because there isn't true competitive bidding
for talent as firms try to outbid people for talent.
"The DOJ would not confirm or deny the reports, and calls to
Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) were not returned.
Also named in the investigation is biotech giant Genentech."