I thought that was true everywhere? Isn't that a major reason people work at Apple, Google...? I didn't ever notice anything different about academia's concern with prestige (feel free to prove me wrong.)
I think it's significantly less true in tech, even if it's still present. People are far more flexible about hiring and working with programmers of different backgrounds, and the views I've heard on tech company prestige aren't nearly as strong and rigid as what I've heard from CS researchers about other departments. (Mostly from folks at Berkeley, but only because that's where I did some research as an undergrad.)
the farcical aspect of the obsession with prestige in academia is that it is within such a small community, for less money, and for a narrower set of opportunities... prestige at the major tech companies comes with more pay, more opportunities, and brand name recognition