Jobs' Email Exposed Google's Secret Relationship with Apple

Google's senior vice president of engineering, Alan Eustace, sent an email to Steve Jobs in 2006 seeking permission to hire a former Apple executive.

The engineer, Jean-Marie Hullot, had been CTO of Apple's applications division until the previous year and Google wanted him to run a small engineering centre in Paris.

Eustace wrote that Hullot would abide by his non-solicit and non-compete terms and not do anything to hurt Jobs or Apple.

However, he also noted that Google's relationship with Apple mattered so much that if the hire threatened it in any way, they would pass on the opportunity.

Jobs took eleven days to respond, asking what Hullot would be working on, specifically mentioning cell phone handsets.

Satisfied with the answer, Jobs gave his blessing for the hire, but later reversed his decision when Eustace asked if he could bring four engineers who had worked for him at Apple's Paris office.