According to the new report, which CNBC published on August 8, District Court Judge Lucy Koh has effectively rejected the settlement brought to the court, between Apple, Google, Adobe and Intel. According to the report out of the courtroom, it boils down to the fact that Judge Koh believes the settlement is actually not enough money, and has cited $380 million as the appropriate amount.
“The ruling by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, said the proposed settlement amount “falls below the range of reasonableness.“
Bloomberg reports:
Apple Inc. (AAPL), Google Inc. (GOOG), Intel Corp. (INTC) and Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) failed to win approval of a settlement of claims they schemed to not recruit each other’s workers because a judge said employees deserve more than $324.5 million.
U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh in San Jose, California, today ruled that the amount to be paid by the technology giants was insufficient in light of a $20 million settlement reached earlier with three other companies sued by employees —Intuit Inc. (INTU) and Walt Disney Co. (DIS)’s animation studio Pixar and visual-effects specialist Lucasfilm Ltd.
In her ruling, which you can read here, Judge Koh states that using the Disney-Pixar settlement as a yardstick, the appropriate benchmark settlement for this lawsuit would be at least $380 million, that’s a good $50 million more than what the tech companies are currently offering.
Eventually, exposed emails between the companies showed that these agreements were in fact in place. These companies agreed that they should pay out $324.5 million to settle, but apparently that is now up in the air with this rejection from the court.
What do you think ?
