The great giants had agreed an unofficial agreement not to poach each other's employees.

The great giants, Apple and Google had agreed an unofficial agreement not to poach each other's employees.

No formal, written agreement is present, and that employees of one company be welcome to submit an application for jobs at the other, but that the two companies said they would not keenly pursue hiring each other's workers.

Now that Eric Schmidt has stepped down from Apple's board of directors, it is unclear whether any such agreement would still be in effect.