Whole Foods CEO Bashed Wild Oats Online Before Takeover Bid
John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, apparently behaved in not so wholesome a manner when he spent time bashing Wild Oats stocks on a Yahoo stock-market forum under the pseudonym "Rahodeb" not long before his company bid to take over the competing natural foods market chain. The Federal Trade Commission is attempting to block the takeover on antitrust grounds. (Via BoingBoing)John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, apparently behaved in not so wholesome a manner when he spent time bashing Wild Oats stocks on a Yahoo stock-market forum under the pseudonym “Rahodeb” not long before his company bid to take over the competing natural foods market chain. The Federal Trade Commission is attempting to block the takeover on antitrust grounds. (Via BoingBoing)
Smart Money:
NEW YORK (Dow Jones) — In January 2005, someone using the name “Rahodeb” went online to a Yahoo stock-market forum and posted this opinion: No company would want to buy Wild Oats Markets Inc., a natural-foods grocer, at its price then of about $8 a share.
“Would Whole Foods buy OATS?” Rahodeb asked, using Wild Oats’ stock symbol. “Almost surely not at current prices. What would they gain? OATS locations are too small.” Rahodeb speculated that Wild Oats eventually would be sold after sliding into bankruptcy or when its stock fell below $5. A month later, Rahodeb wrote that Wild Oats management “clearly doesn’t know what it is doing. . . . OATS has no value and no future.”
The comments were typical of banter on Internet message boards for stocks, but the writer’s identity was anything but. Rahodeb was an online pseudonym of John Mackey, co-founder and chief executive of Whole Foods Market Inc. Earlier this year, his company agreed to buy Wild Oats for $565 million, or $18.50 a share.
For about eight years until last August, the company confirms, Mr. Mackey posted numerous messages on Yahoo Finance stock forums as Rahodeb. It’s an anagram of Deborah, Mr. Mackey’s wife’s name. Rahodeb cheered Whole Foods’ financial results, trumpeted his gains on the stock and bashed Wild Oats. Rahodeb even defended Mr. Mackey’s haircut when another user poked fun at a photo in the annual report. “I like Mackey’s haircut,” Rahodeb said. “I think he looks cute!”
Your support matters…Independent journalism is under threat and overshadowed by heavily funded mainstream media.
You can help level the playing field. Become a member.
Your tax-deductible contribution keeps us digging beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that unearths what's really happening- without compromise.
Give today to support our courageous, independent journalists.
TD Original
The multibillion-dollar Effective Altruism movement makes rich people feel good about being rich — to hell with the bad publicity.
Lessons learned from the 2008 financial crisis show that taxpayer-funded blank checks to institutions do nothing to help those struggling
The economic pain caused by the coronavirus becomes more painfully clear.
With 17 times as many new infections outside China as in it, Italy and Iran close schools; travel and events are canceled; and markets yo-yo.
As the epidemic spirals into a pandemic, causing a plunge in the stock market, Donald Trump and Larry Kudlow insist "USA in great shape!"
CDC's call for Americans to be prepared for spread of "severe illness" added new urgency to response efforts that had focused on overseas.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.