The cuts also pushed talent out the door to Internet startups like PlanetRx, Quokka Sports and Violet.

FORBES: Denim Disaster

"That's nuts, " said Toan to his chief financial officer, George Paz, as he watched his company's stock price jump 40% on news that Express Scripts planned to open an Internet drugstore to compete with much-hyped startups such as drugstore.com and PlanetRx.

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Even other regulatory authorities, which have no profits on the line, say the move would be unfair to online drugstores like Drugstore.com dscm (nasdaq: dscm - news - people) and PlanetRX plrx (nasdaq: plrx - news - people).

FORBES: Drug wars