Regulators Eye Whole Foods CEO Postings

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators have undertaken an informal investigation in the anonymous online postings of John Mackey, the chief executive of Whole Foods Market Inc., some of which denigrated a smaller rival grocery chain and that raise novel questions for securities watchdogs.

Mackey's postings over seven years on Internet financial forums, cloaked under the name "rahodeb," at times attacked Wild Oats Markets Inc., calling its stock overpriced and predicting it would fall into bankruptcy and then be sold after its shares dipped below $5. Whole Foods announced in February that it would buy Wild Oats for around $565 million, or $18.50 a share.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has begun its probe into the postings, which came to light last week as part of a lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission to block Whole Foods from buying Wild Oats on antitrust grounds. The trade agency contends that the sale would combine the two largest organic and natural-foods retailers and raise prices for consumers by concentrating too much power in one company.

The SEC inquiry was first reported late Friday by the Wall Street Journal online. Agency spokesman John Nester declined to comment, as did Sonja Tuitele, a spokeswoman for Wild Oats at its headquarters in Boulder, Colo.


Read more: http://money.excite.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt_top.jsp?news_id=ap-d8qdamn00&

[ikojo]

1. More proof that it is the capitalist system that

is corrupt. It doesn't matter that Whole (paycheck) Foods is run by a new-agey type. What matters is that the CEO is just as greedy as the CEO of a traditional grocery store chain and will do anything to undercut and undermine what is perceived as a competitor.

[populistdriven]

2. John Mackey is a Libertarian

http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?key=6hkaa&txtName=Mackey,%20John%20&txtState=TX&txtAll=Y&Order=N">List of John Mackey political contributions

[ikojo]

3. Except for the drug issue, LIbertarians are fiscally

FAR more right wing than even the Republicans and some Democrats. There are few things they don't think the "market" can deliver better than government. I got into an argument with a Libertarian about 14 years ago when McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) was laying off a bunch union employees. His solution was not to pay them unemployment or government sponsored job training, because that only encourages people not to work, but for them to start their own businesses!