According to Bloomberg's Thursday report, former Palm CEO Ed Colligan has revealed that, in August 2007, the Apple head Steve Jobs had approached him with a proposal deal to stop the 'poaching' of executives from one company to the other.

Colligan said that Jobs' offer, which came shortly after the first iPhone's June 2007 launch, coincided with the appointment of Apple's ex-iPod division chief, Jon Rubinstein as the Executive Chairman of Palm.

Colligan further revealed that though he had considered Jobs' offer, he eventually turned it down saying that such an agreement would be "likely illegal," because such interactions generally grab the attention of the government officials responsible for enforcing anti-trust laws and for checking competition-thwarting practices.

As per reports, Colligan told Jobs: "Your proposal that we agree that neither company will hire the other's employees, regardless of the individual's desires, is not only wrong, it is likely illegal."

The revelations by Colligan have come within two weeks of a reported "no poaching" deal between Google and Apple, which is currently being investigated by the US Department of justice (DoJ).

In fact, the DoJ is not likely to make allowances for such deals, which essentially appear to be 'anticompetitive' in nature. This year, some reports have already surfaced about DoJ's scrutiny of the supposedly anticompetitive HR practices of leading tech companies.