Four of the world's biggest tech giants - Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe - have agreed to a new settlement of $415mln in an attempt to resolve a lawsuit, BBC News reports.

The U.S. lawsuit alleged the firms agreed not to poach staff from each other. It claimed the alleged agreement prevented workers from getting better job offers elsewhere.

The 2011 U.S. case had claimed $3bn in damages on behalf of more than 64,000 workers at the four firms.

The latest attempt to settle the case for $415mln, which was filed in court on Thursday, Jan 15, comes after a U.S. judge rejected a $324.5mln settlement offer last year.

The judge had deemed that settlement offer too low.

If the companies had lost the case and damages were awarded, they could have tripled to some $9bn under U.S. antitrust laws.

The lawsuit, which was based largely on emails between some executives of the tech firms, has been watched with much interest for details about the alleged pact.

According to some reports, one email exchange cited in the lawsuit shows Eric Schmidt, former chief executive of Google, telling Steve Jobs the former boss of Apple, that a Google recruiter who solicited an Apple employee would be fired.