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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: OtherChap who wrote (22555)	10/22/1998 11:13:00 AM
From: Rob S.	Respond to of 164684

What does Amazon.com have to loose in the lawsuit? Although WallMart claims monetary damages, the award of substantial sums is unlikely in this type of case. At worst AMZN would be required to let go of the new employees and any information they provided. Practically, however, the damage would have already been done because AMZN will have learned WallMarts mode of operations. Proprietary EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) conventions that WallMart is using are not very important because world-wide EDI standards are quickly being adopted - why would Amazon want to copy something proprietary when they can establish vendor relationships using better supported and wide-spread standards? WallMart blazed some trails in EDI and more efficient (cut-throat) sourcing practices but they are by no means alone in the effort: Costco, etc. The lawsuit will be easily defended and will not harm Amazon's efforts toward EDI and facilities development. What AMZN really stands to gain from the new employees is all the vendor relationships and knowledge of pricing that has been successfully negotiated by WallMart. That's something that will be hard for them to pin down in the lawsuit.