Steve Jobs A “Walking Antitrust Violation”

In a New York Times feature article, reporter James B. Stewart talks to a law professor who makes the case that Steve Jobs got away with illegal business practices while at Apple, including Sherman Antitrust Act violations that are punishable by up to three years in prison and a stock-option backdating maneuver that netted him millions of dollars. Professor Herbert Hovenkamp, of University of Iowa College of Law, marvels that the lawyers around Jobs let him get away with one thing in particular, the no-poaching agreement he worked out with Google’s Eric Schmidt, the same agreement that recently was at issue in a class action that resulted in a $324 million settlement. In the article, it’s duly noted that not every antitrust infraction results in government action, and that Jobs’ immense popularity must have made prosecutors think twice, but in the end Jobs did the one thing that is guaranteed to beat a looming felony charge: He died.