The Home Depot: Information from Answers.com

Company Perspectives:
As the population in North America continues to age, so does the housing stock. More people are reinvesting in their most precious material asset--their home--with renewed vigor. They are remodeling, updating and tackling more projects on their own. And they are coming to The Home Depot to do their shopping.
What they find is a "feel good" store: a place where they feel good about walking in our doors, feel good about consulting our knowledgeable associates, feel good about paying a low price and feel good about returning time after time.
But as good as our business feels, what we have accomplished over the years is only a springboard from which to improve as we continue to evolve and respond to the opportunities and challenges ahead.
As we look forward with a quickening pace, we envision years of dynamic profitability, sales, growth and success for our associates and stockholders alike. And you can bet that we won't rest for a minute while we paint the industry orange.

Incorporated: 1978
SIC: 5211 Lumber & Other Building Materials; 5251 Hardware Stores; 5231 Paint, Glass & Wallpaper Stores

The Home Depot, Inc. the largest home center retailer in the United States, operates 478 warehouse stores and sells more than 40,000 items to both the rapidly growing do-it-yourself home improvement market and construction professionals. The company's stores are located in 19 states, on the West Coast as well as in the southwestern, northeastern, and southeastern regions of the United States. California and Florida are the states containing the most Home Depot outlets, most of which are clustered around urban areas. A typical Home Depot warehouse--more than twice the industry norm at an average of 105,000 square feet--stocks building materials, wall and floor coverings, paint, plumbing supplies, hardware, tools, electrical supplies, and supplies for landscaping and gardening.

The company was incorporated in June 1978 as a result of a corporate management shake-up by new ownership of the Handy Dan home center chain. As a result of the managerial shuffle, Bernard Marcus, Arthur Blank, and Ronald Brill found themselves out of work. With backing from a New York venture capital firm, Marcus and his two associates formed The Home Depot and opened the company's first outlets in the Atlanta, Georgia, area. The concept that had helped secure financing for the project was that when the price of merchandise was marked down, sales increased while the cost of making those sales decreased. The major problem that had plagued most cut-rate retail operations, however, was poor service at the operations level, which hired unskilled, low-paid employees to keep costs down.

Marcus and his partners realized that recognizing customers' needs was one of the most important elements in a company's growth. They were aware that at the time do-it-yourselfers made up more than 60 percent of the building supply industry's sales volume, but the majority of them did not have the technical knowledge or expertise to accomplish most home repair or improvement projects.

The Home Depot management team set about to solve this problem in two ways. First, they made sure that all Home Depot stores were large enough to stock at least 25,000 different items. Their competitor locations normally had room for only 10,000. The second solution was to train the sales staff in each store to help remove much of the mystery attached to home improvement projects from the minds of consumers. Marcus and his partners believed that, with the education provided by knowledgeable sales staffers, Home Depot customers would gain the confidence to take on more projects at home, coming back to Home Depot outlets to purchase what was needed and get additional advice from sales staff.

Home Depot built its sales staff from both dedicated do-it-yourselfers and professional tradespeople, hiring most employees in full-time capacities. Only 10 percent of Home Depot's sales personnel were part-time. Whenever possible, each store had a licensed plumber and electrician on staff, and customers were urged to call the Home Depot store in their area if they had any problem or questions while they were doing their home repair or improvement projects. The company also scheduled in-store instructional workshops for its customers and in some cases brought in local contractors as teachers.

This approach paid off. By 1984 the company was operating 19 stores and reported sales of $256 million, a 118 percent increase over 1983. In 1986 Home Depot's sales reached the $1 billion mark, and the company was operating 50 retail outlets.

The company's growth was not without its problems, however. In 1984 Home Depot paid $38.4 million for the nine-store Bowater warehouse chain, with outlets in Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama. The acquisition created immediate difficulties. Bowater's reputation with consumers was shoddy, and the merchandise in its stores did not match what Home Depot carried in its other outlets. In addition, Bowater's employees did not meet Home Depot's standards; Home Depot would eventually be forced to dismiss almost all of them.

During these years Home Depot's sales continued to climb, but for the first time in the company's history the cost of sales also increased. In 1985 the company's earnings fell 42 percent, and with the ever-increasing costs of opening new outlets--at that time it was more than $8 million per store--the company's long-term debt rose from $4 million to $200 million in just two years. By the end of 1985, the company's stock price had plummeted. It was clear that changes were needed if Home Depot was to continue to grow and prosper.

The company slowed down its expansion. In 1986 Home Depot only opened ten new stores, all in existing, established markets. A stock offering of 2.99 million shares at $17 per share helped reduce and restructure the company debt. Marcus also installed a computerized inventory control system and upgraded the company's management training programs. In keeping with Marcus's commitment to slower, more conservative growth, the company continued opening new stores to completely capture existing markets instead of striking out into new regions of the country.

By 1989 Home Depot had surpassed Lowe's Companies in sales, becoming the largest home-repair chain in the United States. By year's end almost all outlets were using the company's new satellite data communications network. The fast and accurate exchange of information now linking stores permitted continued growth by enhancing the company's responsiveness to market changes. The satellite also served as a foundation for the Home Depot television network, a system that produces and transmits live programming by top management to each outlet. The company's net earnings increased 46 percent in 1990, and Home Depot effected a three-for-two stock split that same year. Sales increased 38 percent over 1989. With the trend for continued growth in the do-it-yourself market shown by a 33 percent increase in the number of customer transactions logged by the company in 1990, along with an increase of 4 percent for the average customer sale, Home Depot seemed to be an emerging giant in the U.S. retail marketplace.

The company began the 1990s with the goal of doing more than $10 billion in sales from 350 locations by 1995. Part of this plan included a 75-store expansion into the northeastern United States, one of Home Depot's strongest markets despite the region's economic setbacks. Company officials believed the area's dense population and large number of older homes would generate impressive results. Expansion plans also included the state of Washington.

Despite the continued health of the home remodeling market, the company's stock flattened out in 1993, as the firm began to saturate its market. Along with superstores like Bed Bath & Beyond, Home Depot suffered from consumer reaction to the proliferation of large warehouse megastores. In reaction, the company began to search for ways to redefine its marketplace, as well as developing enhancements to its three-tiered "price, assortment, and service" strategies.

Throughout the 1990s Home Depot tested out several programs designed to determine where business could grow next. In 1991 it sampled customer interest in an installation program for items like carpets, doors, and windows. The program met with success and was adopted throughout Home Depot stores. A bridal registry was tested, as well as a drive-in lumberyard and a delivery service. Home Depot also established an environmental marketing department to help educate consumers about what product choices are more environmentally friendly. Over 70 hardware products--from light bulbs to paint--were identified for customers via in-store flyers and posters. Customer satisfaction again came under consideration in a program called S.P.I--store productivity improvement--in which cleaning, restocking, and other routine tasks are scheduled after store hours. In 1995 Home Depot opened its first 24-hour store and published a book on home repair, the 480-page Home Improvement 1-2-3, compiled with Better Homes and Gardens magazine publisher Meredith Corporation.

In addition to entering new U.S. markets, Home Depot began to examine other options. In 1994 the company spent $150 million on a 75 percent share of Aikenhead's Home Improvement Warehouse, a Canadian hardware chain. While Home Depot examined the possibility of expansion both north and south of the border, by the following year plans to open outlets in Mexico had been put on hold, and the number of planned Canadian openings had been reduced to 25 through 1996. Instead, the company added to the number of its EXPO Design Centers, bringing the total to five. Begun in 1991 and located throughout the U.S., these stores have captured the upscale interior design market and further expanded the company's sales base. In addition, efforts to court the commercial market also began to reap profits; overall, Home Depot net earnings achieved a 5-year compound growth rate of 35 percent over the first half of the 1990s.

In addition to its dual concerns of maintaining both the bottom line and customer satisfaction, Home Depot has continued to take a leadership role in many of the communities that its stores have entered. Under the leadership of Blank, who contends that corporate America has a responsibility to give back to the society within which it flourishes, Home Depot's Team Depot has become involved in humanitarian causes ranging from local welfare organizations to Habitat for Humanity and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada and the United States. In addition to encouraging the continuous volunteer efforts of its employees, the company also employed 1996 Olympic hopeful athletes, paying them competitive wages as part-time employees during their training for the Atlanta-based games, of which Home Depot was a corporate sponsor.

Although some forecasters continued to shed doubt upon the company's ability to maintain its phenomenal level of growth through the year 2000, company management has remained confident. By 3rd-quarter 1996 Home Depot had reported earnings of $221--up 26 percent from the previous year--and was ranked among the ten largest retailers in the United States. Despite the losses posted to competitors in the do-it-yourself retail market, Home Depot's 9 percent increase in same-store sales in 1996 showed that, within the $90 billion consumer home improvement market, orange had become the color of choice.

The Home Depot, Inc.

Type	Public (NYSE: HD)
Founded	Marietta, Georgia (1978)
Headquarters	near Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Key people	Frank Blake, CEO & chairman
Industry	Retail (home improvement)
Products	Home improvement products such as home appliances, tools, hardware, lumber, building materials, paint, plumbing, flooring, garden supplies & plants
Revenue	▼$71.288 billion USD (to Feb 2009)^[1]
Net income	▼$2.260 billion USD (2008)^[1]
Employees	209,300 (Feb 2009) ^[2]
Website	www.homedepot.com

History

Please help improve this article by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (December 2007)

The Home Depot was founded in 1978 by Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, Ron Brill, and Pat Farrah.^[6] The Home Depot's proposition was to build home-improvement warehouses, larger than any of their competitors' facilities. Investment banker Ken Langone helped Marcus and Blank to secure the necessary capital.

“	"Bernie and I founded [The Home Depot] with a special vision -- to create a company that would keep alive the values that were important to us. Values like respect among all people, excellent customer service and giving back to communities and society."^[7]	”
—Arthur Blank

In 1979, the first two stores, built in spaces leased from J. C. Penney that were originally Treasure Island "hypermarket" (discount department and grocery) stores, opened in metro Atlanta on June 21. Two more opened not long after, and all four shared the space under the "squiggly" zig-zag roof with Zayre on its right side. The first headquarters was on Terrell Mill Road on the southeast side of Marietta, Georgia, just down from one of the stores at the corner of Cobb Parkway. (That store [33°54′23″N 84°29′14″W / 33.9065°N 84.4872°W / 33.9065; -84.4872], in the Marietta Plaza strip mall, became Value City, changing to Burlington Coat Factory in 2008; part was also a short-lived Little Bucks, in which Brill had a stake.)

Since the 1990s, its current headquarters (33°51′54″N 84°28′55″W / 33.865°N 84.482°W / 33.865; -84.482 (The Home Depot, headquarters)) is a complex of high-rise buildings on Paces Ferry Road, on the western edge of the Cumberland/Galleria edge city in unincorporated Cobb County, Georgia, across Interstate 285 from the town of Vinings, and served by mail from Atlanta. The tallest is approximately 85 metres (280 ft) high, the fourth-tallest in the Vinings area.^[8] Many of the company's employees refer to the headquarters as the "Taj Mahal" because of the luxurious look on the interior and exterior of the buildings.

In 2000, after the retirement of Marcus and Blank, Robert Nardelli was appointed chairman, president, and CEO. Nardelli was replaced in January 2007 by Frank Blake. ^[9]

In 2007 the Home Depot sold its USD $13 billion revenue wholesale (trade) division, HD Supply, to a consortium of three private equity firms, The Carlyle Group, Bain Capital and Clayton, Dubilier and Rice (with each agreeing to buy a one-third stake in the division). Home Depot sold their wholesale construction supply business to fund a stock repurchase estimated at $40 billion

The Home Depot today

Distribution of Home Depot stores in the lower 48 states

The Home Depot in Durham, North Carolina

Home Depot stores are large, averaging 105,000 ft² (9,755 m²) and organized warehouse-style, stocking a large range of supplies. The company color is a bright orange (PMS 165, CMYK 60M100Y), on signs, equipment and employee aprons.

Its 2005 sales totaled US$91.8 billion (US$77.0 billion in retail sales). Despite the 10% increase in revenue, it dropped three spots to #17 on the 2007 FORTUNE magazine's FORTUNE 500 list (it was #13 in 2005 and #14 in 2006). The Home Depot owned EXPO Design Center, a chain of higher-end home decorating and appliance stores, but closed the chain in 2009. [3] In 2006, the Home Depot acquired Hughes Supply which was assimilated into HD Supply serving contractors, which it eventually sold in June 2007. In September 2005, Home Depot Direct launched its high-end online home-furnishings store, 10 Crescent Lane, shortly followed by the launch of Paces Trading Company, its high-end online lighting store. In mid 2006, the Home Depot acquired Home Decorators Collection which was placed as an additional brand under its Home Depot Direct Division. Home Depot Landscape Supply, with only a few stores each in metro Atlanta and Dallas/Fort Worth, was founded in 2002 and closed in late 2007.

On January 2, 2007, the Home Depot and Robert Nardelli mutually agreed on Nardelli's resignation as CEO after a six-year tenure. Nardelli resigned amid complaints over his heavy-handed management and whether his pay package of $123.7 million, excluding stock option grants, over the past 5 years was excessive considering the stock's poor performance versus its competitor Lowe's. His golden parachute severance package of $210 million has been criticized because when the stock went down his pay went up.^[9] ^[10] His successor is Frank Blake, who previously served as the company's vice chairman of the board and executive vice president. Blake agreed to a much more conservative compensation package than his predecessor that is very heavily dependent upon the success of the company.

In 2008 and 2009, with the downturn in the housing market, The Home Depot announced the layoff of several thousand associates, as well as the closing of 54 stores nationwide, including the entire EXPO Design Center chain.^[11]^[12] In the year to February 2009 sales totaled $71.288 billion, more than $20 billion down from the peak of two years earlier due to the sale of HD Supply and falling revenue at the retained business.

Board of directors

Current members of the board of directors of the Home Depot are: F. Duane Ackerman, David H. Batchelder, Frank Blake, Ari Bousbib, Gregory D. Brenneman, Albert P. Carey, Armando Codina, Brian C. Cornell, Bonnie G. Hill, and Karen Katen.^[13] The Home Depot's board consists of 10 members, with 9 of them being outside directors.

Marketing

The slogan "More saving. More doing." was introduced by The Home Depot in the March 18, 2009 circular, replacing "You can do it. We can help." which had been used since 2003. Other slogans used in the past 25 years include "The Home Depot, Low prices are just the beginning" in the early 1990s and "When you're at the Home Depot, You'll feel right at home" in the late 1990s and "The Home Depot: First In Home Improvement!" from 1999-2003.

Online

The domain homedepot.com attracted at least 120 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com survey.

Exclusive brands

The Home Depot exclusively carries several major brands, including:

American Craftsman by Andersen (windows, patio doors)
American Woodmark (cabinetry)
BEHR Paint
Brinkmann outdoor grills and supplies
Chem-Dry (carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, tile and grout services)
Distinctions Cabinetry
Feather River Doors
G.E. (water heaters)
Glacier Bay (faucets and bath)
Husky (tools, store brand)
Homelite (outdoor and power tools)
Legacy Doors (premium wood and steel entry doors)
Martha Stewart Living (outdoor furniture, indoor organization and decor products) (Coming January 2010)
Millstead (lumber, store brand)
Pegasus (kitchen and bath items)
Ryobi, RIDGID (power tools)
Thomasville cabinetry
Vigoro (fertilizer)

Additionally, the retailer has its own house brands:

Commercial Electric (lighting and electrical)
Eco Options (store brand)
Hampton Bay (lighting, ceiling fans & patio furniture)
n:vision (compact fluorescent bulbs, formerly part of Commercial Electric)
Workforce

Commercial Electric and n:vision both have addresses listed in Mableton, the next town southwest of the company's Vinings headquarters.

Fuel centers

Starting in 2006, the Home Depot has started testing with fuel centers at some of its stores. The first such "Home Depot Fuel" convenience store (C-Store) was located in Brentwood, Tennessee followed a month later by a center about 20 miles (32 km) away in Hermitage, both suburbs of Nashville. Four additional prototype stores were built within the year at Acworth, Georgia; Smyrna, Tennessee ; Greensboro, Georgia; and then Winchester, Tennessee in that order. The centers are expected to earn $5–$7 million per year, though the actual number is reported to be much higher. The fuel centers sell beer, hot food, snacks along with providing diesel at a separate island. This allows contractors with large trucks to be able to fill their vehicles. The fuel centers offer car washes, which are large enough to accommodate full-size pickup trucks.^[14]

Home Depot construction toys

The Home Depot has its own brand of construction toys, which include plastic hammers, wrenches and screwdrivers but are sold exclusively at Toys R Us.^{[citation needed]}

Social and community philanthropy

The Home Depot Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the company created in 2002. It has contributed over $200 million in time, labor, money, and supplies to a number of causes, including Habitat for Humanity, California-based City of Hope Cancer Center, and playground construction organization KaBOOM!^[15]

Home Depot has partnered with the Georgia Emergency Management Agency's Ready Georgia campaign, leading both supplies and facility use to this statewide effort to increase emergency preparedness among Georgia's children.^[16] The company also provided ready kits and other prizes for an art and essay contest for Georgia elementary school students.^[17]

In 2005, Home Depot was among 53 entities that contributed the maximum of $250,000 to the second inauguration of President George W. Bush.^[18]^[19]^[20]

The Home Depot also operates their own Political Action Committee which is named "Home Depot PAC". Under the political action committee, the company can endorse candidates, contribute to campaigns and lobby for legislation.^[21]

Environmental record

The Home Depot has stated on their website that they have a commitment "to the environment and pledge to continue to be an industry leader in looking for products and services that are respectful of our world."^[22] The Home Depot introduced a label on nearly 3,000 products in 2007. The label promotes energy conservation, sustainable forestry and clean water. Home Depot executives said that as the world’s largest buyer of construction material, their company had the power to persuade thousands of suppliers, homebuilders and consumers to follow its lead on environment sustainability. “Who in the world has a chance to have a bigger impact on this sector than Home Depot?” said Ron Jarvis, who is the vice president for environmental innovation at Home Depot.^[23] This program is following Home Depot’s promise in late 1990s to eliminate the number of sales of lumber from endangered forests in countries including Chile and Indonesia.^[24] Home Depot has since worked with environmental groups to create a variety of green programs. For example, Home Depot planted thousands of trees at its headquarters in Atlanta to offset carbon emissions. In 2007, The Home Depot Foundation (the company's charitable foundation) committed to investing $100 million over the next decade to build over 100,000 green affordable homes and plant three million trees.

Additionally, The Home Depot promotes compact fluorescent light bulbs in their stores. As part of this effort, the company has created the largest recycling program in the United States for the bulbs.^[25]

Major sponsorships

Since 1991, the company has become a large supporter of athletics, sponsoring the United States and Canadian Olympic teams, and launching a program which offered employment to athletes that accommodates their training and competition schedules. While remaining supportive of Canadian Olympians, the Home Depot ceased to be a sponsor of the Canadian Olympic Team in 2005.

Company co-founder Blank also purchased the Atlanta Falcons franchise of the National Football League in February 2002. The Home Depot is also the primary sponsor of NASCAR Sprint Cup Rookie Joey Logano of Joe Gibbs Racing in a Toyota Camry. Before Joey, it was the sponsor of 2-time Cup Champion Tony Stewart since his rookie year; in 2009 Tony left Joe Gibbs Racing to own half of Stewart Haas Racing. The Home Depot is also the title sponsor of The Home Depot Center in Carson, California, home to both the Los Angeles Galaxy and Chivas USA of (Major League Soccer), and Los Angeles Riptide (Major League Lacrosse), and many past major sporting events. innovative solutions for the home in areas such as security and home monitoring, communications, energy efficiency, entertainment, environment and health.^[26]

In January 2007, the Home Depot became the official Home Improvement sponsor of the National Football League.^[27]

Seventy-three percent of the Home Depot's campaign contributions went to Republican candidates in the 2005-2006 US elections. "Home Depot's PAC gives money based on a candidate's voting record, committee assignment and leadership position," said company spokesman Jerry Shields.^[28] The CEO in this period was Bob Nardelli, a friend of U.S. President George W. Bush.^[29] Nardelli hosted a garden reception/fundraiser for Bush at his Atlanta home on May 20, 2004.^[30]

The Home Depot internationally

Canada

Home Depot Canada is the Canadian unit of the Home Depot and one of Canada's top home improvement retailers. The Canadian operation consists of nearly 190 stores and employs over 35,000 people in Canada. Home Depot Canada has stores in all ten Canadian provinces and serves territorial Nunavut, Northwest Territories, and Yukon through electronic means (Online and catalogue sales).

The Canadian unit was created with the purchase of Aikenhead's Hardware. Home Depot management has an ambitious plan to overtake its biggest competitor, RONA, which has about four times as many stores. However, many of RONA's stores are smaller than the typical Home Depot store. In terms of big box stores, the Home Depot has many more stores than RONA. As of 2007, RONA pulled ahead of The Home Depot in total retail sales, due to aggressive consolidation efforts by RONA, combined with the loss of The Home Depot's industrial supply division, HD Supply, in July 2007. The Home Depot now faces competition from Lowe's as they have moved into the Canadian market effective the end of 2007; Lowe's first eleven Canadian outlets are all located in Ontario.

The Home Depot banner in Quebec reads "Home Depot" without the definite article "the" in order to ensure a more cross-compatible proper name (that does not read like an English sentence) between both the French and English languages.

Mexico

The Home Depot store in Mexico City, Mexico

The Home Depot entered Mexico in 2001, and has since become one of the largest retailers in Mexico, operating more than 50 stores with over 6,600 employees. Most of the Home Depot stores are located in the same installations in which the extinct Home Marts were located. Border town Home Depots attract some American consumers to make their US dollar go further in purchases of mostly same home improvement products in Home Depots of Tijuana, Mexicali, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros. In 2006, the Home Depot began a program to offer Mexican employees to have "guest worker" incentives for Mexican nationals and Latin Americans to easily, but legally obtain employment in Home Depots across the US.^{[citation needed]}

China

In December 2006, the Home Depot announced its acquisition of the Chinese home improvement retailer The Home Way.^[31] The acquisition gave the Home Depot an immediate presence in China, with 12 stores in six cities.

United Kingdom

There have been reports that the Home Depot is interested in acquiring B&Q, the largest DIY retailer in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and China. The two companies are very similar in that they both use an orange square logo, have similar uniforms and websites and use a similar slogan. Speculation of a takeover began in 1999 when the retailer Asda was purchased by Wal-Mart. The Home Depot will have to acquire Kingfisher plc, B&Q's parent company, to acquire B&Q, Kingfisher consists of several European DIY chains however the Home Depot is only interested in B&Q operations and says that it will dispose of the Castorama chain which operates in France, Italy, Poland and Russia. Several talks have not yet resulted in a takeover deal.^[32]^[33]^[34]^[35]

South America

In 1997, Home Depot entered the Chilean and Argentinian markets. While the venture was viewed with great optimism by founders Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank^[36], it eventually proved unprofitable. In October 2001, Chilean partners Falabella bought out Home Depot's share of the five Chilean stores, while in Argentina Hipermercados Jumbo acquired the four Argentine outlets.

Labor union policies

The Home Depot has a strong "union-free" policy like other major retail companies, such as Wal-Mart.

In 2004, Home Depot workers at a suburban Detroit store in Harper Woods, MI, rejected a bid to be represented by a labor union, voting 115 to 42 against joining the United Food and Commercial Workers.

If the union had won, the Michigan store would have been the first Home Depot ever to have union representation. The retailer has more than 2,200 stores in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and China.^[37]

In October 2008, co-founder Bernie Marcus called the Employee Free Choice Act "the demise of a civilization".^[38]

Criticism

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (December 2007)

Whistleblower case

The Home Depot was embroiled in whistleblower litigation brought under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) law. In July 2005, former employee Michael Davis, represented by attorney Mark D. Schwartz, Esq., filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the Home Depot, alleging that his discharge was in retaliation for refusing to make unwarranted chargebacks against vendors. Davis alleges that the Home Depot forced its employees to meet a set quota of chargebacks to cover damaged or defective merchandise, forcing employees to make chargebacks to vendors for merchandise that was undamaged and not defective. The Home Depot alleges that it fired Davis for repeatedly failing to show up for work.

The trial initially was concluded in June 2006, but in April 2007, U.S. Department of Labor Judge Pamela Lakes Wood ordered the case reopened after the Home Depot's law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld revealed that the retail giant's in-house counsel had told them that two Home Depot employees who testified at the trial had lied. Akin Gump sent Wood a letter on September 29, 2006, in which the law firm requested that the testimony be stricken. In response to Akin Gump's revelation, Davis' attorney Mark D. Schwartz asked for the case to be reopened to permit further questioning of the witnesses. On April 6, 2007, Wood ordered the case to be reopened.

Schwartz believes that the witnesses who falsely denied that they had ever been asked to enter false return-to-vendor information gave false testimony under pressure from the Home Depot. Schwartz was quoted by the New York Post as saying, "I have reason to believe these witnesses were intimidated into giving false testimony." The Home Depot called Schwartz's allegations "meritless."^[39]

Home Depot has settled the dispute in a stipulation of settlement dated March 28, 2008. In the settlement, Home Depot changed some of its corporate governance provisions. Home Depot also agreed to pay the plaintiff's counsel $6 million in cash and $8.5 million in common stock.^[40]

References

^ ^a ^b [1]
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^ Roush, Chris "Inside Home Depot" McGraw Hill
^ http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=5212
^ ^a ^b "Robert Nardelli Resigns as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Home Depot and Is Succeeded by Frank Blake". News Releases. The Home Depot. January 3, 2007. http://ir.homedepot.com/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=224078.
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^ Home Depot retreats after Tuesday's big gain, Forbes.com
^ Home Depot in Albert Lea still open; others, not so lucky, Albert Lea Tribune
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^ Bailey,M.. "Business & Industry: The Home Depot". Georgia College and State University. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1886&sug=y.
^ The Home Depot Partners with GEMA’s Ready Georgia to Teach Thousands of Kids about Emergency Preparedness, The Fayette Front Page, August 10, 2009, http://www.fayettefrontpage.com/public-safety/09/8-10-09_home-depot-gema.html
^ "Congratulations to our “Get Ready Georgia” Art and Essay Contest Winners!". Ready Georgia. http://www.example.org/. Retrieved 3 November 2009.
^ Drinkard, Jim (2005-01-17). "Donors get good seats, great access this week". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-01-16-inauguration-donors_x.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
^ "Financing the inauguration". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-01-16-inaugural-donors_x.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
^ "Some question inaugural's multi-million price tag". USA Today. 2005-01-14. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-01-14-price_x.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
^ Home Depot PAC
^ "Business Code of Conduct and Ethics". Corporate Governance. The Home Depot. http://ir.homedepot.com/governance/ethics.cfm. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
^ "Home Depot to Display an Environmental Label". New York Times. April 17, 2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/business/17depot.html.
^ "Home Depot adopts new wood purchasing policy". Planet ARK. January 6, 2003. http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/19281/story.htm.
^ "Home Depot Offers Recycling for Compact Fluorescent Bulbs". New York Times. June 24, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/business/24recycling.html.
^ "Duke Announces Construction of “The Home Depot Smart Home”". Duke University. October 24, 2006. http://www.pratt.duke.edu/news/?id=794.
^ "The Home Depot Becomes an Official NFL Sponsor". The Home Depot. January 9, 2007. http://ir.homedepot.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=224939.
^ "Republican Candidates Increase Share of Business PAC Donations". Bloomberg.com. August 8, 2006. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ax33MvEtvy0E&refer=news.
^ "Nardelli resigns abruptly as CEO of Home Depot, leaves with $210M". AP.com. January 3, 2007. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20070103/ai_n17090979.
^ Harris, Paul (May 23, 2004). "Bush's super fundraisers join the queue for favours". http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1222706,00.html. Retrieved 2007-10-24.
^ "The Home Depot acquires The Home Way". PR News Wire. December 13, 2006. http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/homedepot/26373/.
^ BBC NEWS | Business | Bid talk lifts Kingfisher shares
^ US giant targets B&Q DIY chain | This is Money
^ The Scotsman
^ Kingfisher profit down 33% as B&Q unit takes a hammering
^ Marcus, Bernie; Blank, Arthur; Andelman, Bob (1999). Built from Scratch. New York: Random House. pp. 300-302. ISBN 0-8129-3058-4.
^ Home Depot Workers Reject Bid to Unionize
^ [2]
^ Kapner, Suzanne (April 12, 2007). "Home Depot Case Revived". New York Post. http://www.nypost.com/seven/04122007/business/home_depot_case_revived_business_suzanne_kapner.htm.
^ "Home Depot Settlement". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 2008-03-28. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/354950/000110465908023700/a08-10344_1ex99d2.htm.

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Corporate Directors:	Greg Brenneman · Richard H. Brown · John Clendenin · Claudio González · Milledge Hart · Bonnie Hill · Laban Jackson · Lawrence R. Johnston · Ken Langone · Tom Ridge

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