Microsoft hires Apple Store staff; potential employee walk-out
Citing anonymous sources, Jim Dalrymple at The Loop has reported that Microsoft has contacted "a number of Apple's retail store managers" in an attempt to hire them away. The employees have been promised "significant raises," and some were even offered moving expenses. The strategy also allegedly has a recruitment element to it.
"Once hired, the ex-Apple employees are then contacting some of the top sales people in the Apple retail organization offering them positions at Microsoft retail," Dalrymple wrote. "They have also been offered more money than what they made at Apple."
As Microsoft prepares to enter the retail market, it has taken a number of cues from Apple's successful brick-and-mortar stores. In fact, the Redmond, Wash., company even hired real estate expert George Blankenship, one of the cornerstones of Apple's early retail efforts, to consult on its first retail stores.
