Corporate Case Studies

If anything will bring about the downfall of a company... it is blind copies of emails that should never have been sent in the first place... - Michael Eisner (Forbes, May 2000)

Disney's CEO, Michael Eisner is not alone in his concern about uncontrolled email. Companies across a broad range of industries have been confronted with the risks of email. This is principally because email is easy to distribute and nearly impossible to erase. For every message sent, multiple copies are automatically created and saved in locations over which you have no control. The result - company email archives are becoming a prime target in corporate litigation. Liabilities aside, just complying with email discovery requests can cost millions of dollars.

Case #1

American Home Products had to produce electronic archives that included 33 million emails, which were then used to establish a "pattern of behavior." They paid $3.75 billion in legal damages as a result - but of course, with 33 million emails to choose from, opposing counsel can establish any pattern of behavior imaginable. see http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/digitaldiscovery/library/mundy.html

Case #2

In a recent shareholder lawsuit, 3Com's email archives were subpoenaed. Rather than deal with the cost and intrusion into its confidential email messages, the company elected to settle the case for $260 million. see http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/11/04/BU86960.DTL

Case #3

Microsoft has spent thousands of dollars per employee answering discovery requests for old email, as well as an enormous amount of executive time, while defending itself in a federal anti-trust suit ultimately based on internal email messages. see http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2160529,00.html

Case #4

A series of email messages leaked to the press showed that Bridgestone Firestone engineers discussed tire safety issues - as good engineers should - well before they initiated a recall. The result: a deluge of bad press and questioning by lawmakers. see http://wbns.cbsnow.com/now/story/0,1597,237420-412,00.shtml

Case #5

Dow Chemical has fired 74 employees and disciplined at least 435 employees following investigations into the inappropriate use of email. see http://www.freep.com/money/business/doww27_20000727.htm

Case #6

The New York Times had an email retention policy but no tool for enforcement, so the policy was generally ignored. In an effort to shield itself from liability, the Times fired more than 20 staffers for violating its policy. see http://www.sunmedia.ca/TechNews9912/01_times.html

Start controlling your costs associated with email today. Email us now at sales@omniva.com or call us (toll free) at 1(877)723-3624.