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stories about: "whole foods"
(Mis)Uses of Technology

(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick

Wed, Nov 7th 2007 7:35am


Filed Under:
executives, message boards

Companies:
whole foods



Whole Foods Board Decides Common Sense Ain't Common Enough: Bans Execs From Web Postings

from the common-sense-ain't-what-it-used-to-be dept

Over the summer, there was some press coverage over the news that the CEO of Whole Foods had, for years, been posting to Yahoo message boards about his company under a fake name. It doesn't look like he did anything illegal, but it was certainly questionable from an ethical standpoint. Whole Foods' board has now responded by changing the company's "code of conduct" to ban execs from posting to non-company-sponsored web forums about company related news. In other words, the board felt the need to basically put what should be common sense into its code of conduct. Of course, the easy retort is that it clearly wasn't common sense to the CEO who engaged in it, but one would think with the ongoing SEC investigation he'd now be pretty aware of this fact, and changing the company's code of conduct is unlikely to have much of an impact.

21 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
Earnings, IPOs, and the like

Earnings, IPOs, and the like

by Joseph Weisenthal

Fri, Aug 17th 2007 12:16pm


Filed Under:
antitrust, ftc

Companies:
whole foods, wild oats



Judge Slaps Down FTC's Attempt To Block Whole Foods/Wild Oats Deal

from the buh-zing! dept

When the FTC stepped in to block the merger between Whole Foods and Wild Oats, it seemed like an obvious case of a market being defined too narrowly. Yes, both companies place a similar emphasis on organic foods, but organic foods represent a small slice of the overall food market, and there's no question that organic and conventional foods are substitute goods. The whole situation was roughly analogous to the situation facing XM and Sirius in their attempt to merge, as the NAB would like the FCC to define the market as simply satellite radio, while in fact it's clearly much broader. It looks like the FTC's argument has been thoroughly rejected as a federal judge declared that the merger should not be blocked. The judge's ruling remains sealed, so his exact rationale isn't known, but it sounds like this could be a useful precedent in other cases going forward.

16 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
Stupidity

Stupidity

by Joseph Weisenthal

Thu, Jul 12th 2007 6:55am


Filed Under:
message boards

Companies:
whole foods



Whole Foods CEO Caught In Embarrassing Message Board Brouhaha

from the mackey dept

The FTC's decision to oppose Whole Foods' acquisition of Wild Oats is the result of a misguided and myopic definition of what constitutes the relevant market. And while many expect Whole Foods to ultimately prevail, the proceedings have been unpleasant for the company's CEO, John Mackey. First it was revealed that Mackey championed the merger, in part because he believed that by taking Wild Oats out of play, it would prevent another supermarket chain from quickly becoming a Whole Foods rival. That may or may not be damning (from an antitrust perspective), but a new revelation will prove to be far more embarrassing. As part of its latest legal filing, the FTC dropped the bombshell that John Mackey had, for several years, been posting on the the Yahoo Finance message boards under a pseudonym, cheerleading his company's success and denigrating its rival, Wild Oats. He even made predictions about the company's stock price, putting out extremely high estimates for its performance. It's not clear that what he did was necessarily illegal, but his posting seems unethical and highly foolish, at the very least. If nothing else, the company's stockholders should wonder about what the boss is doing with his time.

33 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
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