BusinessWeek's April 21, 2008 Issue: The New E-spionage Threat
As chaos rocked Bear Stearns during the weekend of Mar. 15-16 , one of the
investment bank's star brokers prepared to bolt from its Boston office. The
Federal Reserve and JPMorgan Chase were rushing to rescue Bear. But Douglas A.
Sharon didn't wait around to see how it all came out. Surveillance cameras
captured the 50-year-old veteran and an assistant toting two boxes out of
Bear's downtown building. Earlier, Sharon had frantically called dozens of
skittish clients and tried to sort through the mess with other executives at
the branch. The company alleged in a lawsuit that amid the mayhem, Sharon
committed an unlawful act of disloyalty, stealing copies of confidential
account documents and, more important, the lucrative clients who went with
that paperwork. Sharon denied any wrongdoing, countering that his actions
amounted to client triage, not treachery. A judge found no merit to Bear's
claims. The two sides continue to duke it out in arbitration, but the blow to
Bear has already been dealt. With Bear and JPMorgan trying to prevent a mass
client exodus, almost all of Sharon's 90 or so customers -- and their roughly
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YOU'VE BEEN PRE-REJECTED
By Aili McConnon
Two courtside tickets to an NBA game:
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A SPINMEISTER IN NEED OF SPIN
By Burt Helm , with David Kiley and Steve Hamm
From the start, some of Mark J. Penn's colleagues had qualms about his dual roles as CEO of Burson-Marsteller, the public-relations giant, and chief strategist for the Presidential campaign of New York Senator Hillary Clinton . Maybe they shouldn't have. On Apr. 6 , Penn gave up his role as strategic chief with the campaign, though he continues to advise the candidate. The move followed revelations, first reported in The Wall Street Journal, that Penn met in late March with officials of the Colombian government, which had hired Burson to help pass a proposed free-trade pact with the U.S. that Clinton happens to oppose. L'Affaire Penn was yet another blow to the Clinton campaign. But it was also embarrassing for Burson, which is supposed to get good headlines for its clients, not bad ones for itself. As BusinessWeek went to press, Penn's job seemed secure, and none of the firm's clients, which include BP, Accenture, SAP, and Intel, had yanked their business (apart from the Colombian government, which fired the firm). Still, Penn & Co. are in full damage control mode. Penn plans to visit regional offices in the coming days and confer with his executives. "I'll be talking one-on-one," Penn told BusinessWeek, "and making sure that this is resolved, behind us, and the company moves on." http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_16/b4080000363255.htm?campaign _id=pr_newswire
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AMAZON TAKES ON IBM, ORACLE, AND HP
By Peter Burrows
Jeff Bezos made a fortune building Amazon.com into one of the top players
in online retailing. Now he's looking for new ways to cash in on the company's
capabilities. One of the most intriguing, he thinks, is to move into the
