Two of the most valuable and famous companies in the world, Apple and Google, have been slapped with a class action suit filed in 2011 by tech workers. The suit represents around 64,000 personnel. After more than two years, it appears that Google and Apple have yielded as they have agreed to a settlement. The class action suit also lists Adobe Systems and Intel Inc. as defendants.

Tech workers alleged that the four defendants conspired to refrain from poaching each other's employees in order to avoid having a war over salary offers. To the uninformed, this might sound reasonable but for many long-time career people in the tech field and even in other industries, it is a completely unacceptable practice. The class action suit filed in 2011 sought $3 billion in damages. However, with the antitrust law figuring in, this amount could have increased by as much as triple.

The conspiracy case has been widely monitored because of the high amount of payouts expected to be involved. Even if the case ended in a settlement, tens to hundreds of millions of dollars would have to be spent by the companies involved.

News of the settlement became public knowledge after a court filing on Thursday. No details on the terms were revealed.

Apple, Google, and the rest of the companies involved in the case admitted to the existence of the emails cited in the case and that they discussed and agreed not to head hunt each other's prized engineers and other top employees. However, they denied that the motivation was to keep salaries low.

Spokespersons for Apple and Google refused to give any comment regarding the settlement. However, one lawyer for the plaintiffs, Kelly Dermody of LIeff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, described the settlement as "an excellent resolution."

Typically, in settlements involving corporate defendants, the defendants simply agree on how much each of them will contribute to the settlement to pay. It is highly likely for the four companies to divide the damage payment based on the number of their employees.