The Whole Foods – Wild Oats merger can finally take place, I was pleased to learn. A court denied the Federal Trade Commission’s request for a stay. The world needs more CEO’s like Whole Foods CEO John Mackey. In a talk he gave at Berkeley last year, he quoted Michaelangelo: “Criticize by creating,” a wise and memorable saying that I hadn’t heard before. That’s exactly what Mackey has done.
I thought it was interesting that for years John Mackey participated anonymously in Yahoo financial bulletin board discussions about Whole Foods and Wild Oats. When his avatar was outed, he temporarily discontinued posting to his blog while the matter was investigated. I wonder if he’ll resume posting now, anonymously or otherwise. What do you think about it?
I believe too much was made of his anonymous postings. I believe they were harmless.
i don’t agree that Mackey’s false and misleading posts made under the guise of being just another investor were harmless. They were probably illegal and he should be pursued (and probably will be civilly)
I also don’t agree that the merger is a good thing. stores will be closed and competition will be reduced. how is that good thing?
What harm did Mackey’s anonymous posts do? Given hundreds or thousands of people posting, I would think it is awfully hard to know that one of them had a big effect. And even harder to know the direction of that effect.
The merger is a good thing because Whole Foods is much better run than Wild Oats. The better WF policies, etc.,will replace the worse WO policies, etc.
Whole Foods’ main competition, Mackey has said, is Trader Joe’s. Trader Joe’s is not going away.