>The only "evil" in the situation is how easily some (most?) people will abandon you the moment they get a better opportunity.

As if your company wouldn't fire you the moment it was more lucrative to do so.

> It's not ruthless -- it's business.

It's not like these things are mutually exclusive.

It's a dick move, and I wouldn't do it, but I am also not beholden to a board of investors/shareholders that expect to see positive ROE at the end of the day.

This is part of Microsoft's core culture. Bill Gates championed the philosophy of doing anything it takes to get ahead, as long as there's some argument that it might be legal.

And to their credit they've been fantastically successful. I enjoy many things in my day-to-day life by Microsoft provided "free" of charge.

Take that for what you will.

Thank Linus and RMS not Microsoft. They were forced to play catchup with the free/open source movement.

So what I left out of my comment are the ethical implications of doing whatever you want, as long as there's no law against it. Many behaviors are unethical, while still (for the time being) legal.

Wait till you hear how they compete for suppliers, customers, and regulatory changes. Business is about gaining an advantage over a rival. Scoping up rival employees is a 2x activity, you get talent and a competitor has less.

> It's not ruthless -- it's business.

Targeting all employees of a smaller company to destroy them is considered unfair business practice in some countries (legitimately IMHO). It's similar than selling at loss until your smaller competitor is out of business.

  > It's similar than selling at loss until your smaller competitor is out of business.

Why is this considered illegal or unethical? This seems like a fairly legitimate tactical move to me.

It's like a war of attrition -- you allow yourself to suffer losses for the sake of ultimately winning. At least in this scenario, the main player is also slightly fucking themselves over, instead of just you.

> Why is this considered illegal or unethical?

After competitors are knocked out of the market, the survivor can raise prices to above-market levels.

https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-a...

Ah this is true, hadn't considered this.

It seems like there's a lot of this all the time though?

Everywhere I've lived, my only choice of ISP was Comcast. Whatever Comcast told me I needed to pay for internet, that's what I was going to pay lol.

For mobile phone providers, in the US your options are generally AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, which I'm sure collude on prices and fix them. Same with Cloud services providers, etc

You can take a job and leave if they pay you more. That is fine. Microsoft isn't really only trying to gain talent. They want to drain the life blood out of their competition so they can get ahead. That intention is evil

It's a tactic. A dark one for sure. But corporations aren't known for being philanthropist anyway even if they spend millions on PR to mask that image.

As long as there's no enforcement (and in a free capitalist economy it's hard to enforce this, and I personally think it shouldn't be enforced too) these will happen. The best thing that smaller companies can do is to adapt and play by the rules if they can't change them.

Not saying it's good or bad. It is just it is.

>"The only "evil" in the situation is how easily some (most?) people will abandon you the moment they get a better opportunity."

To keep feeding bosses while loosing potential raise? Thanks but no thanks