Brutal ultimatum Steve Jobs sent rival CEO after he found out his company was recruiting from Apple
Even from beyond the grave, Steve Jobs is still setting an example of how to be an absolute boss in business.
It's cutthroat in the corporate world, as we all know, and that even still applies to those at the top of the food chain.
So when the late Apple CEO found out that a rival company was poaching some of his employees, he needed a mic-drop moment - and by God, did he deliver.
Forget his infamous 'beer test', as this beef with one of his competitors takes the absolute biscuit.
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After reportedly getting wind that software giant Adobe were attempting to recruit a number of his workers, Jobs decided to cut out the middle man and go straight to the gaffer about it.
And back in 2005 - when the scathing message was sent - it was American businessman Bruce Chizen who was in the hot seat, as he served as the firm's CEO from 2000 to 2007.
As two tech guys would, they decided to converse over email.
It seems that Jobs was keen to p*ss on his competitors cornflakes on the morning of 26 May, 2005, as just after 9.30am, he sent a no-nonsense email to Chizen to iron out the alleged poaching problem.
The subject line of the blunt correspondence simply said: "Recruiting."
The email to Chizen is said to have read: "Bruce, Adobe is recruiting from Apple.
"They have hired one person already and are calling lots more. I have a standing policy with our recruiters that we don't recruit from Adobe. It seems you have a different policy.
"One of us must change our policy. Please let me know who. Steve."
Like I said - a mic-drop moment.
According to reports, it took Chizen until almost the end of the working day to come up with a retort to Jobs' impressive email - but he gave as good as he got.
The 69-year-old, who later stepped down from his position as Adobe's CEO to be replaced by Shantanu Narayen, responded: "I thought we agreed not to recruit any senior level employees (at Adobe this is Sr. Director/VP and represents about 2% of the population).
"I am pretty sure your recruiters have approached more junior ones. I would propose we keep it this way. Open to discuss. It would be good to agree."
Jobs wasn't too pleased with this reply and sniped back that if that's the case, he would inform his recruiters that 'they are free to approach any Adobe employee who is not a Sr. Director or VP'.
But Chizen wasn't cool with this - and he tried to settle the stalemate by suggesting they both agree 'NOT to actively solicit any employee from either company'.
"If employee proactively approaches then it's acceptable," he added. "If you are in agreement I will let my folks know."
Neither of these fellas commented on this supposed email beef publicly, but the emails were made public in court documents surrounding a 2010 antitrust lawsuit over several tech companies supposed agreements not to cold call each other's employees for recruitment purposes.
After reading the exchange, many people pointed out that Apple devices don't support Flash Players - which some people reckon 'basically killed that portion of Adobe's business'.
One social media user said of the email exchange: "Love this. Steve said 'play with someone else cause I could take all your employees'."
Another wrote: "Steve just being the goat as always."
A third added: "Always say less then necessary. Ultimate flex."
While a fourth commented: "Epic management style."
Others pointed out that it is against the law in the US 'to collude with other companies' about hiring - and 'no-poach agreements' aren't exactly above board.
And Adobe, Apple, Google and Intel ended up paying out $415 million to settle the 2010 lawsuit.
Besides that though, Jobs certainly had some cool comebacks. Hats off.
Topics: Steve Jobs, Apple, Business, Viral, Technology, US News, Jobs
Olivia Burke