Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg will move to quash a subpoena requiring her to give a deposition in a lawsuit alleging that seven technology companies broke antitrust laws by agreeing not to recruit from one another, according to a court filing.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh in San Jose, California, allowed lawyers for employees suing the companies to conduct the deposition around April 23.
Sandberg and her lawyers say they “have worked cooperatively” to agree on a schedule, according to an April 5 status report, and requested a hearing either May 21 or May 23. The planned April 23 deposition has been taken off the calendar.
Defendants in the 2011 case include Google, Apple Inc., Intuit Inc., Intel Corp., Adobe Systems Inc., Walt Disney Co.’s Pixar animation unit and Lucasfilm Ltd. Neither Facebook nor Sandberg, a former Google executive, are defendants.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers contend senior officers at the companies personally entered into non-solicitation agreements to eliminate competition.
“Google believes that Ms. Sandberg is unlikely to offer any testimony that would be admissible or lead to admissible evidence,” according to a March 29 joint status report signed by lawyers for the plaintiffs and defendants.
Sarah Feinberg, a spokeswoman for Menlo Park, California- based Facebook, has declined to comment on a Sandberg deposition.
The San Jose case is In Re High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation, 11-cv-02509, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose). A previous case is U.S. v. Adobe Systems, 10-cv-01629, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).
