CEO Questionably Used Pseudonym to Post Online

jpallas writes "The Wall Street Journal reports that court filings by the FTC about Whole Foods' plan to acquire Wild Oats reveal an unusual detail: The CEO of Whole Foods regularly posted to a Yahoo! stock bulletin board under a pseudonym. His alter ego was feisty, to say the least, and regularly disparaged the company that he later decided to acquire. A former SEC chairman called the behavior 'bizarre and ill-advised, even if it isn't illegal.' This certainly raises questions about online rights to free speech and anonymity, especially when the line between free speech and regulated speech depends on who is speaking as much as what they are saying."

Comments

So what?

[seanadams.com]

Why would you expect that anyone posting to a stock message board did NOT have some stake in the game? I don't see how or why you would differentiate the CEO from any other stakeholder who chooses to post for his own self interest. Does the public in general use their real names?

It certainly reflects poorly on the him, but only insofar as he's just another lame schmuck posting propaganda on the message boards. Maybe I'm missing something but I wouldn't expect to find unbiased opinions there.

Re:So what?

[Notquitecajun]

A CEO would be differentiated because...well..he's a CEO, and has a HIGHER stake in case his agenda is out to acquire the company. However, I doubt that anonymous posters on a little-viewed yahoo board about a poorly-performing whole foods company which have a huge amount of influence on what its stock does.

I can imagine that several large corporations have attempted to somehow change the stock price either for themselves or a competitor in such a manner, and I would be extremely surprised if it was worth the effort, unless those postings contained some sort of insider information.

By the way, Mackey is an entertaining sort. He's a vegan who eats eggs, is a libertarian, and ticks off unions. I could almost like this guy. He also cut his own salary for his employees' benefit (the way it ought to be done, not by some idiot act of Congress).

On reflection, this should have little to nothing to do with the acquisition of another company.

Re:So what?

[Cedric Tsui]

I don't think you understand the big deal here.

This is a CEO who is paid by his company to acquire other businesses. Instead, he is wasting time on Yahoo message boards.
I think all slashdotters will agree that browsing online forums while at work is unethical.

This just goes to show

[Anonymous Coward]

They should ban pseudonyms and anonymous posting to forums

I'm Shocked !!!

[asphaltjesus]

Unbelievable!

A. The guy couldn't come up with another way to kill Wild Oats? He should hire some of the scumbags running HP. They've got plenty of dirty tricks and know how to give their CEO plausible deniability.

B. The SEC in general would frown on this kind of activity from a CEO. In theory, they are held to a higher standard. Since it's a public company the likes of Albertson's would love to see disappear, no doubt more non-stories like this will appear.

C. The job should be left to underlings. Contracted underlings like they do in *every* other industry.

D. Most /.'ers fail to understand how much money he stood to make if the price of Wild Oats shares were lower by a dollar or two. Easily worth the effort. Easily.

E. The simple fact he couldn't pay off enough people in D.C. to force this one through is also quite enlightening. The telcos have enough budget for bribes. I guess Whole Foods doesn't.

Re:Salary cut

[CoderDude]

The details of his new salary are on his blog at: http://www.wholefoods.com/blogs/jm/archives/2006/1 1/compensation_at_1.html The applicable section:

Beginning on January 1, 2007, my salary will be reduced to $1 per year and I will no longer take any other cash compensation at all. I will continue to receive the same benefits that all other Team Members receive, including the food discount card and health insurance. The intention of the Board of Directors is for Whole Foods Market to donate all the future stock options I would be eligible to receive to our two company foundations - The Whole Planet Foundation and The Animal Compassion Foundation. In case there is some technical, tax, or legal reason why these stock options cannot be given to our two foundations, then I will retain future option grants and will pledge to donate 100% of the gain from those options to the foundations. This donation of future options received doesn't apply to the stock options already issued to me prior to January 1, 2007.

One other important item to communicate to you is, in light of my decision to forego any future additional cash compensation, our Board of Directors has decided that Whole Foods Market will contribute $100,000 annually to a new Global Team Member Emergency Fund. This money will be distributed to Team Members throughout the company based on need when disasters occur (such as Hurricane Katrina last year). The money will be placed in a special account and any money not distributed in any particular year will roll over and be added to the following year's contribution. We are still working on the exact way Team Members will be able to access this money. The first $100,000 will be deposited on January 1, 2007. (I added the highlighting)

Not many CEO's behaving that way these days.

Disclaimer:
I work at WFM in the IT group, so now I make more than the CEO does. :-)

CoderDude