TheCorporateCounsel.net

July 17, 2007

The Whole Foods’ CEO Message Board Fiasco: It’s the ’90s All Over Again!

Over the last few days, plenty has been written in the media about how the Whole Foods CEO John Mackey has been posting messages – anonymously – about his company and his competitor on this Yahoo! message board devoted to Whole Foods’ competitor Wild Oats (if you want to read some of the CEO’s posts related to Wild Oats, scroll down for the URLs in this blog). Wild Oats is now in the process of being bought by Whole Foods, but first needs anti-trust clearance from the Federal Trade Commission – and the FTC has sued to block the deal. The CEO’s postings came to light when they were mentioned in the FTC’s memo filed last week to support its motion for a preliminary injunction (and here is the FTC’s original complaint). According to this NY Times article regarding “sock puppets,” Mackey has been posting anonymously for 8 years.

Lord knows why Mackey has been doing this, particularly given that he is one of those rare CEOs that has his own blog, which he can use to express his views. For more on issues raised by employees that blog, see our “Employee-Blogger” Practice Area.

My take on the provocative story is that I didn’t realize that folks were still using message boards. That’s so ’90s! Back then, everyone was concerned about cybersmears and message boards – and how they could impact your stock price. It was such a big issue that I got halfway through writing a book on the topic, that I ended up scrapping because the issue dropped off the edge of a cliff, as everyone migrated away from message boards as “bigger and better” things to do on the Web emerged.

Apart from potential legal issues and liabilities, the biggest problem I have with this CEO’s activities is that it sets a poor example by the company’s leader. Back when I wrote on this topic, one area I would focus on is how companies should adopt policies to ensure employees didn’t post messages about their employer due to legal and other reasons. Here is a set of FAQs on Cybersmears and Message Boards that I wrote at least five years ago – note that it includes a section on “Potential Employer Obligations Arising from Employee Messages” that probably holds water even today. I didn’t think to include a statement that anonymous postings by a CEO could tank a merger…

The Whole Foods Fiasco: What are the Disclosure and Securities Laws Issues?

On his “The Race to the Bottom” Blog, Professor Jay Robert Brown does a great job of analyzing the securities law issues implicated by the Whole Foods anonymous posting incident as follows:

“The WSJ has reported that the Commission has opened an investigation into the activities of Whole Foods CEO John Mackey. It seems that Mackey over an eight year period made posts on an online stock forum run by Yahoo using a pseudonym. Mackey, according to the WSJ report, “lauded Whole Foods’ stock, cheered its financial results and bashed a company Whole Foods made a bid to acquire.” Some of the posts are here. The Journal speculated that the SEC might be looking into whether Mackey’s statements contradicted statements made by the company, were “were overly optimistic about the firm’s performance,” or violated Regulation FD.

We talk often about SOX, particularly in the context of investor confidence. Accurate disclosure is, in the end, at the core of investor confidence. But, while Mackey may have exercised very poor judgment, does that equate to a violation of the securities law?

There are two broad categories of possible violations. They include fraud (making materially incomplete or inaccurate statements) and selective disclosure (providing material information to select persons in the market). My book, The Regulation of Corporate Disclosure, examines these topics in detail.

Selective disclosure is not per se improper, a legacy of Chiarella. (We have criticized the awful reasoning of this case on my blog. Suffice it to say that it validated deliberate selective disclosure by corporate insiders in some cases). Regulation FD was a regulatory response to this case and the problem of selective disclosure. Regulation FD does not exactly prohibit selective disclosure. Instead, to the extent a company (through its agents) deliberately discloses material non-public information to certain investors/market professionals, it must simultaneously make public disclosure of the information. A company that accidentally disclosed material non-public information on a selective basis has 24 hours to disclose it to the entire market. See 17 CFR 243.100, et seq.

These provisions will be very difficult to apply to Mackey. First, with respect to Regulation FD, the SEC will have to show that Mackey disclosed material nonpublic information. Second, once disclosure occurs, it is not the disclosure of the information that violates Regulation FD but the failure to disclose the information to the entire market. This burden rests with Whole Foods. The SEC will need to show that Whole Foods knew about the disclosure and failed to meet the requirements of Regulation FD. While the CEO made the disclosure and he is an agent of Whole Foods, the SEC and courts may have a hard time attributing the information to the company given Mackey’s the possible stealth involved (indicated by the reported use of a pseudonym). Finally, Regulation FD only applies to disclosure to certain types of investors or market professionals such as analysts. It really was not intended to apply to disclosure that was arguably to the entire market. Disclosure in the Yahoo forum is arguably to the entire market (and, in any event, would arguably meet the defintion of “public dislcosure” for purposes of Regulation FD).

As for the antifraud provisions (primarily Rule 10b-5), there is no question that the prohibition on fraud applies to material disclosed on the Internet. Posting false information or making inaccurate statements in chat rooms or threaded discussions can be the basis of a fraud suit much the same was as false statements in press releases. The SEC will need to show that Mackey made materially false or incomplete statements. The problem here is materiality. Since he used a pseudonym, the market was arguably unaware that he was directly connected to Whole Foods. As a result, the market may have not treated his statements as material but instead viewed them no different than uninformed statements from ordinary investors.

This is not, however, the end of the story. Even without disclosing his identity or role in the company, the depth of the comments, the accuracy over time, and the uniqueness of the information, may well have alerted the market to the fact that he had unique information that could only come from an insider (either because he was an insider or because he was communicating with an insider). In those circumstances, those in the market may well have treated the statements as material. Analysts who follow Whole Foods in Yahoo could probably resolve this.

We shall see where this case goes. At a minimum, it suggests that top officers ought not to be communicating (perhaps at all but certainly not through pseudonyms) in chat rooms and investor forums.”

Romeo & Dye Analyze New Section 16 Interps

Recently, the SEC Staff issued long-awaited Staff interpretations on Section 16 issues. In the latest issue of Romeo & Dye Section 16 Updates – which was just mailed – Peter and Alan analyze the numerous new and modified interps, including a controversial one regarding aggregate reporting that will have a widespread impact on many Section 16 filings.

Act Now: To receive this critical guidance, take advantage of our “Half-Off for the Rest of 2007” No-Risk Trial for Romeo & Dye’s Section 16 Annual Service. Note that this Annual Service is a print service and this guidance is NOT available on Section16.net.

– Broc Romanek