Google reportedly hired away Apple senior director for 'secret project'

VentureBeat claims to have learned that Google has managed to hire away Simon Prakash, Apple's senior director of product integrity, to work on a "secret project". Report author Dean Takahashi called the new hire "historic" for Google, as Prakash is reportedly the most senior person that Google has recruited away from Apple.

At Google Prakash will work on a "secret project" that may be led by co-founder Sergei Brin who is in charge of a number of clandestine research and development projects, including an "X" lab that works on speculative technology.

Apple and Google anti-poaching relationships have a long history since iPhone manufacturer has started losing its workers to Google. In 2007, late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs sent an email to then Google CEO Eric Schmidt asking that the company not actively pursue Apple's employees.

"I would be very pleased if your recruiting department would stop doing this," Jobs wrote. Schmidt took immediate action and one of the offending employees was promptly dismissed.

In 2009, the two companies had reportedly unwritten agreements not to go after each other's employees. The U.S. Department of Justice also opened an investigation into whether several major technology companies, including Apple and Google, had entered into such agreements illegally.