Florida Jury Sides With Wyle in Avnet Lawsuit

Wyle Electronics, an Irvine electronics distributing company, has prevailed in a lawsuit alleging it engaged in unfair competition against rival Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. A Florida state court jury found that Wyle did not conspire to undermine a competitor by hiring 78 Hall-Mark employees, as alleged by Phoenix-based Avnet Inc., Hall-Mark’s parent company and the second-largest U.S. distributor of electronic components and computer products. Avnet filed the case in Hillsborough Circuit Court in Tampa in 1993, shortly after it acquired Hall-Mark and some employees left for Wyle. The Irvine company, which itself was acquired in 1997 by German industrial giant VEBA AG, has filed a counterclaim for attorneys’ fees and court costs, which could run in the millions of dollars, Wyle lawyers said.