After 1:00 PM EST today CNBC ran a brief feature about Wal-Mart (WMT-NYSE) security officials reading outside emails, but the company just issued a press release stating it was an employee termination over phone call recordings. If you look at the site on CNBC there is some more detail even if that is still brief and vague. CNBC said Wal-Mart will be making an announcement later today.
This report out of the company says that the firing was of a Wal-Mart systems technician for intercepting text messages and recording telephone conversations without authorization. It also says it has removed the equipment and made policy changes effective immediately.
We will not confirm nor even speculate on the real details of this case, but this sounds like something we’ll be hearing more about in the days to come. Wal-Mart is a company that doesn’t want anymore negative public relations. Its investors definitely don’t want any more negative news. At least the company sounds like it was proactive here, and now you just have to wonder if the media and the public will let this go and if they give the company a pass on it. Wal-Mart is a much more controversial company than a Hewlett-Packard (HPQ-NYSE), and we all know what happened when HP did its "pre-texting" and "investigating" of its board members, executives, and outside journalists. Until we see how this gets covered we won’t draw any further parallels or conclusions.
Shares have not been affected as they are up $0.06 at $47.87 on the day; its 52-week trading band is $42.31 to $52.15.
Jon C. Ogg
March 5, 2007
Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.
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