General Motors' self driving technology company Cruise reportedly is trying to poach engineers from struggling rival Zoox, according to an email sent to Zoox engineers by the founder of Cruise this week.
Reuters said the move came as the Wall Street Journal reported last week e-commerce giant Amazon was in advanced talks to buy Zoox, a company founded six years ago and based in Silicon Valley.
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"Cruise is willing to recognise the full value of the rewards you've earned at Zoox – something that is very unlikely to occur via an acquisition in this environment," said the email from Cruise founder Kyle Vogt sent in the past two days, according to a source who has seen the email.
Reuters noted it had not seen a copy of it.
Cruise on Thursday confirmed to the news agency the email was sent.
"We're going after the best talent in the world, wherever they may be working and whatever else they might be working on," said Cruise chief communications officer Kristine Boyden.
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By GlobalDataThe person who had seen the email told Reuters there was no mention of Amazon in the letter but that it kicked off by saying: "Writing because your company is potentially about to go through a major transition."
Zoox didn't immediately reply to a news agency request for comment about the Cruise letter to its employees. As of 12 May, Zoox had around 1,100 employees, according to data company PitchBook.
California Employment Development Department records show Zoox laid off 87 employees in April.
The source told Reuters Cruise had been doubling down on recruiting talent for its core technology and that layoffs in May that impacted over 140 employees was a move to "right size" the organization.
The layoffs included staff at an engineering team in Pasadena, California, that worked on lidar.
Still, Cruise in April acquired a German radar company Astyx that has about 60 employees, the company confirmed on Thursday.
Cruise has also hired many engineers this year from self-driving truck firm Starsky Robotics which shut down in March, according to two former Starsky engineers and information posted by engineers on LinkedIn, Reuters added.
