SAN JOSE — Silicon Valley powers Apple, Google, Adobe Systems and Intel have reached a revised deal to settle a lawsuit alleging illegal hiring practices, according to a letter filed Tuesday with a federal appeals court.

The letter does not disclose the new settlement figure, but The New York Times reported that it increases the earlier settlement amount from $324 million to $415 million. A federal judge previously rejected the $324 million figure as inadequate, prompting the companies to appeal that decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

However, the letter filed by a lawyer for the companies said a new settlement deal will be filed “imminently” with U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, who is handling the case. Koh had put the case on hold until later this year while the companies appealed her decision scrapping the previous settlement.

She would now have to approve the new pact. Koh had previously suggested the tech companies should pay at least $380 million to resolve the case, and all signs indicate they have agreed to sweeten the pot enough to avoid a potentially embarrassing trial.

Kelly Dermody, the lead attorney for the employees, said the settlement details will be revealed in court documents to be filed on Thursday. She declined to comment further.

The latest deal, however, appears to have satisfied perhaps its biggest critic. Michael DeVine, one of the lead plaintiffs in the case, had vigorously opposed the original settlement, but supports the new pact, according to Dan Girard, his San Francisco lawyer.

The revised settlement is likely to resolve the current appeal in the 9th Circuit, which was scheduled to hear arguments in March. Lawyers for the companies last fall urged the appeals court to intervene and resurrect the first settlement, which would have given an average payout of $3,750 each to about 64,000 employees covered by the 3-year-old lawsuit.

Koh rejected the previous settlement last year, determining that it was inadequate compensation in a case where “there is ample evidence of an overarching conspiracy” among the companies. The class-action lawsuit alleged that top executives of the tech giants, including late Apple CEO Steve Jobs and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, cut secret deals to keep each other from raiding rival workforces.

Lucasfilm, Pixar and Intuit previously settled the same allegations in a $20 million deal approved by Koh. But the judge concluded that the payout by the primary defendants should be well above the $324 million, in part because the plaintiffs earlier in the case assessed damages at $3 billion.

Howard Mintz covers legal affairs. Contact him at 408-286-0236 or follow him at Twitter.com/hmintz.