CEO of Whole Foods Revealed to be Rahodeb
It isn't illegal (yet) for the CEO of a company to use an alias to praise his stock in online forums. It isn't even illegal (yet) for the CEO of said company to anonymously bash his competitors onlineĀbut should it be? This is one of the questions that springs from a recent revelation in an antitrust suit against John Mackey, co-founder and chief executive of Whole Foods. It turns out that Mackey spent 8 years posting in the Yahoo stock market forums, under the pseudonym "Rahodeb." He used the screen name to praise Whole Foods and bash Wild Oats.
Mr. Mackey's online alter ego came to light in a document made public late Tuesday by the Federal Trade Commission in its lawsuit seeking to block the Wild Oats takeover on antitrust grounds. Submitted under seal when the suit was filed in June, the filing included a quotation from the Yahoo site. An FTC footnote said, "As here, Mr. Mackey often posted to Internet sites pseudonymously, often using the name Rahodeb."
It seems that the FTC was late to catch on. As early as 2002, another Yahoo! Message Boards user was speculating that Rahodeb was Mackey.
I would place an 80-90% probability that Rahodeb is John Mackey.
Interestingly, the poster was "The Boston Cowboy," real name: Chris Kilham. Kilham's Massachusetts-based company, Cowboy Marketing, has functioned as a consultant to the natural foods industry. Kilham is also the author of a book called Cowboy Marketing: How to Shoot From the Hip and Win on the Wild Frontier of Natural Foods Retailing.
It seems likely that Rahodeb wasn't the only alias Mackey used on the boards. In fact, various posters accused him of using multiple screen names, and creating conversations among them.
Mackey has defended himself, saying that he was simply "having fun" and playing "devil's advocate."
"I posted on Yahoo! under a pseudonym because I had fun doing it. Many people post on bulletin boards using pseudonyms. I never intended any of those postings to be identified with me.
The views articulated by rahodeb sometimes represent what I actually believed and sometimes they didn't. Sometimes I simply played 'devil's advocate' for the sheer fun of arguing. Anyone who knows me realizes that I frequently do this in person, too."
Rahodeb and Mackey may not have always seen eye to eye, but one view they surely did share was posted by the alias in 2000: "While I'm not a 'Mackey groupie, I do admire what the man has accomplished."
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Comments
Subrosa
San Francisco, CA
July 2004
JUL 13, 2007 06:43 PM
paperpterodactyl
Pittsburgh, PA
July 2006
JUL 14, 2007 09:37 AM
Subrosa
San Francisco, CA
July 2004
JUL 14, 2007 10:18 AM
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