Wal-Mart sues Amazon.com and Drugstore.com for raiding its IT staff

http://informationweek.com/706/06iuprp.htm

This article in Information Week Online, Oct. 26, 1998, explains that Wal-Mart sued Amazon.com and Drugstore.com for raiding its IT staff. It goes on to discuss issues related IT hiring in the age of Internet start-ups.

Questions:

1. Explain why the knowledge of particular IT staff members is especially important for Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, and Drugstore.com.

2. Moving from one company to another may involve issues including personal freedom, personal incentives and opportunities, professional development, loyalty, a company's ability to build and maintain IT-enabled systems, and a company's protection of its proprietary information and methods. Explain which of these issues (and perhaps others) apply in this article and which ones seem most important.

3. Explain why you do or do not believe there is an important difference in the business, legal, and ethical issues when hiring members of another company's IT staff or members of its management staff or product development staff.

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