An interesting conversation that I had with a friend revolved around a simple question: did TJX have a financial loss from the computer security incident in 2007?
Sales? Since the event, TJ Maxx’s sales actually increased. Stock price? After a dip during the initial press fall-out, the stock price rose. Comparing to the Dow Jones shows value being driven by the market rather than by media fall-out. When the news hit, the market responded. The stock then returned to its normal levels. Profitability? Check the annual statements from 2006 thru 2010. Revenue and profit are both up, year over year, for the time period. In sum, no long term impact was felt.
I am surprised to find little evidence supporting a business impact. It could be that TJX’s growth simply outpaced the situation. Perhaps their marketing team simply did a great job in handling the crisis. Or perhaps, just perhaps, security incidents are not the business extinction event that security vendors like to suggest.
Some links:
TJX Companies Income Statement
http://ycharts.com/financials/TJX/annual_income_statement
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=TJX&annual
Google Finance — TJX versus the DJIA
http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1295730063672&chddm=493051&chls=IntervalBasedLine&cmpto=NYSE:TJX&cmptdms=0&q=INDEXDJX:.DJI&ntsp=0