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.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: message boards
Companies: whole foods
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What he's doing with his time?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Oh, you mean John Mackey. Well, it's still a little extreme.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:quailty dropping along with stock/buy when at 1
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
everybody does it
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Who are you the time police!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Which is just sad...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: free time, work time, anytime
In reality, he owns large block of stock, whether he sells at peaks or does a loan on stock colleteral, he still benefits. His job is directly measured against the stock price.
Duhhh! Company Board holds the CEO directly accountable for Stock Price.
I hear deaf ears.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Just last week I seen something on the news that seemed more like an 'infomercial' than real news.
You get some 'expert' on there who says how great something is... blah blah blah.
Sounds to me like the CEO was just hyping his company.
Why is it now that people act like the damn internet is some kind of holy ground or something? OMG, someone said something on teh inteRnet that's not trUe about me!!!! REAWAWRRRRRRR
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This is clearly a violation of Insider Trading
A corporate officer must make all company information public first. No longer can a company give guideance or any other information to a few select. It must be in a public news release.
Posting to a Message board, although a public forum would not be considered by the FTC as a widely distributed public news release.
I smell big problems for Whole Foods CEO in the near future.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: This is clearly a violation of Insider Trading
I am slightly less quick to judge...
I read the linked article and nowhere does anybody state (or even claim) that he did something illegal...at no point is anybody claiming that he used, or made available, any corporate information that was not already in the public domain.
I totally agree that IF he did, it was illegal to do so and he should be appropriately punished for it, however, based on what I've read, there is no proof, not even a real hint, that he actually did that.
Using a pseudonym etc... might seem shifty, but let's face it, any blog/site he would post on wouldn't, not for even 5 seconds, result in any real discussion (same would go for Jobs, Gates,...). I don't know if he did anything illegal, but judging from what I have been able to read on the subject, it looks like he had no illegal agenda and was just arguing (like he would have (been able to) if he hadn't been the CEO).
I'm not saying with certainty he is innocent, I don't know, not 100% sure, but (sorry to repeat myself) based on what I've been able to read, my statement is much more backed up by facts than yours...either of us can be wrong/right, but based on available information, your confidence is somewhat misplaced in my opinion
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Cheerleading
Isn't part of the CEO's job to promote public confidence and opinion for his company? As long as he's just cheerleading, and not disclosing insider information, isn't this what he IS supposed to be doing, at least in part?
Are pseudonyms bad? Should they change the content of what a person says? I promise that this name is not what appears on my birth certificate, but at least I consistently use the same name. There's continuity with this name. Would my words somehow carry more weight if I were to post as Thomas instead?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Cheerleading
But he/she cannot do it in hiding, it must be a public and well-disclosed.
Go look up Pump-n-Dump.
He is the pumper. As CEO he is required BY LAW to disclose this information in clearly defined public channels and with a clear definition of source.
He is doing neither, hiding who he is and limiting the scope of the distribution.
There are different rules for Corporate Officers than for the general employee or outsider. He broke those rules.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Cheerleading
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Cheerleading
If a CEO or any other corporate officer is found to give material information outside the normal stream of public media, then they will have to hire a lawyer to defend themselves.
From the way you couch the discussion (us vs. them, rich vs. poor) I can tell you are on the us/poor side of the equation.
Break given.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
presumption
Do CEO's deserve less legal rights than the typical online music pirate? Or are TechDirt readers just full of hypocrisy?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Greed
But I was shocked when I found out the Whole Foods accepts food stamps and government aid. I had no idea that poverty-stricken people were so into health food.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Greed
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Greed
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Greed
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Greed
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Greed
As a single parent and college student I'm not able to fully support myself and my daughter without the help of government aid (which by the way is exactly what it's there for). If we had a Whole Foods near I would of course love to check out what they offer.
It's about making smart choices and if that means I go to Whole Foods for this or that I hope I don't run into someone who thinks less of me for using my EBT card there.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Greed
As a single parent and college student I'm not able to fully support myself and my daughter without the help of government aid (which by the way is exactly what it's there for). If we had a Whole Foods near I would of course love to check out what they offer.
It's about making smart choices and if that means I go to Whole Foods for this or that I hope I don't run into someone who thinks less of me for using my EBT card there.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
"i like mackey's haircut. i think he looks cute!"
wow. just wow. glad i'm not a billionaire.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Was the real crime that he was caught?
Just how many CEO's of huge companies can claim that they are perfectly honest, all the time? And the down side to doing naughty things? You get caught, possibly fired, and you have to use 1% of the money you earned to hire a lawyer and pay whatever measly fine the government can come up with to "punish" you.
Maybe the share price goes down, maybe not. Either way, the system continues to exist.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Was the real crime that he was caught?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
reduce the cost in the right way
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Whatever line he crossed,
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
CEO blogging
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
A Web Reputation Follows You
By creating online "alter egos" and attempting to hide his true IRL "self" this CEO demonstrated a telling quality of his chairmanship. If he can't be transparent on the internet---bearing in mind that your web reputation follows you wherever you go---how can he possibly be transparent in his other CEO activities?
Too, this story proves that many people still don't get it about the internet: the 'net doesn't provide the anonymity they all think it does!
I post a lot on the 'net and I follow a simple rule: whatever I "say" online is a direct reflection on my business. This allows me to keep my ire in check when attacked by a troll or when I want to fire off something silly and negative in response to something that gets me angry.
I've found this basic rule has saved me from embarrassing myself when I wanted to let my emotions speak instead of keeping my cool and thinking "long term" about my business and its online reputation.
Sometimes simple is very, very hard to do, but it's well worth the effort.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I don't see what this fuss is all about...
Now that I have gotten that out of my chest, i feel very relieved so that I can say whatever I have to say... right?
What is the big deal that this man has done? Everyone uses different psuedo names in message boards. There monkeys with keyboard on Message boards. Who the heck cares about what they say, there are always insiders taking sides of their companies and talking good things about their pay-checkin paying companies.
Albeit this guy happen to be the CEO, what rights did he violate? what did he really do? There is nothing wrong in his actions, he could cry out wolf or sweet talk his whole life and no one would have given hoots about that.
Media is having a ball like those star magazines who trive on Paris hilton stories. IMo, He did not violate nothin. Waste of SEC time, and everyone's time...
who care of what he thinks of his competitors, you have to be reading the message boards to have an idea of what goes on there, before you start a issue out there... and whoever invests with the message board info is a fool anyway.
BTW, did I mention monkey with keyboard, I wouldn't have done nothin with his comments.
Peace,
John (of course a pseudo name, what do you think!)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Childish or Childlike ?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Goldman Sachs scandal with secret software
It has all been a news media collusion along with the combination of Wall Street corruption by Goldman Sachs to destroy Sirius XM Radio inc. by naked short selling, flash trading, superfast computers, using secret software to manipulate the Sirius XM Stock price in decimal places the past few years since the Siri /XM merger was announce in Jan 2007. It was a pact agreed to by the news media and Goldman Sachs, which is why CNBC keeps reporting positive story after positive story about Goldman Sachs. All are into this collusion knee deep and this is why they will not report Goldman Sachs and their biggest scandal in the history of Wall Street.
Goldman Sachs got greedy. The scandal with Sirius XM Radio, worked so well with their secret software that was making them millions of dollars a day. Well, their Greed expanded into not just naked shorting & decimal place trading Sirius XM radio, but Goldman Sachs, next said , heck this secret software works so well, along with CNBC's cover up lets do it to our competition the banking industry. Goldman Sachs next used these tactics on the banking industry in 2008 - 2009. They have been protected by CNBC by paying CNBC millions of dollars a month in advertising or shall we say paid protection.
Goldman Sachs greed almost ruined this country when they began using naked shorting and their secret software to attack the banks. It was their Greed of making millions using this software attacking Sirius XM Radio and when they expanded their scandal to the banking industry, they were now making over $100 million dollars a day. This is a fact, as Goldman Sachs made over $100 million dollars a day in 46 of 64 trading days last Quarter 2009 ( April , May, June 2009 ).
CNBC is part of the scandal, taking in million a months from Goldman Sachs for their silence. Why wouldn't Goldman Sachs pay CNBC millions of month, that was nothing to them, since they are making over $100 million dollars a day. They helped CNBC try to ruin the competition ( Siri ) and now CNBC will help them ruin the other Banks. A true partnership by Goldman Sachs & CNBC.
The scandal lives on today, but thankfully the investigation by William Galvin will be expanded into the news media collusion of CNBC, Motley Fools & Street.com along with many other news media types.
Their Greed and goals have cost the average investors of the World hundreds of billions of dollars the past few years. In the end the truth is going to come out, but how does the people of the World hear the truth when the news media is part of the Scandal.
Well, a few years ago, CNBC & Goldman Sachs would have gotten away with it, but thank you www.Satwaves.com , www.twitter.com/stockshockmovie and the many social media outlets and bloggers out there. Thank you for helping bring the truth to the World. Each day we get closer and closer to the biggest scandal in the history of the United States. ( Written by Richard Keane – August 30th, 2009 )
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Thai Food & Thai Recipes
If you enjoy Thai foods or you want to learn more about them, try visiting the website, www.thai-food.in.th. It is only just beginning but I think you will eventually find it to be a great resource. It also explores a variety of Thai food facts in general.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Thai Food & Thai Recipes
If you enjoy Thai foods or you want to learn more about them, try visiting the website, www.thai-food.in.th. It is only just beginning but I think you will eventually find it to be a great resource. It also explores a variety of Thai food facts in general.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
add restaurant
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
add restaurant
[ link to this | view in chronology ]