In 2006, Google VP emailed Steve Jobs seeking permission to hire former Apple exec
Newly surfaced emails from 2006 reveal that Google executives sought Steve Jobs' approval before hiring a former Apple engineer. The exchange highlights the significant influence Jobs held over Google's hiring decisions during the development of the iPhone.
Why it matters
This historical insight illustrates the intense competitive dynamics and informal power structures between major tech companies during the rise of the smartphone era.
On 28 March 2006, Alan Eustace, then Google's senior vice president of engineering, wrote an email that reads less like a hiring note and more like a request for royal assent. Google wanted to offer Jean-Marie Hullot, the French engineer who had been CTO of Apple's applications division until the previous year, a job running a small engineering centre in Paris. Before anything moved, Eustace asked Steve Jobs for his blessing. Bill Campbell, Sergey Brin and Larry Page were on copy.The exchange, surfaced by Internal Tech Emails, goes well past politeness. Eustace noted that Hullot had agreed to abide by his non-solicit and non-compete terms, that he loved Apple, and would not do anything to hurt Jobs or the company. Then the part that has aged badly.
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