In 2006 Google asked Steve Jobs' blessing before poaching an Apple exec

IgorCarron · x · 2026-08-24

Imagine OpenAI asking Anthropic's permission before hiring one of its executives — yet that's what Google did with Apple in 2006. Before even making an offer to Jean-Marie Hullot to head its Paris engineering center, Alan Eustace wrote to Steve Jobs saying Google would walk away if the hire threatened the Google–Apple relationship. The level of mutual respect among tech leaders back then is striking, and unlikely to exist today.

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