(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ...If you are anything like me you have been following with interest the story of the CEO/Chairman of Whole foods Mr. John P. Makcey who, using the online name Rahodeb, would bad mouth competition on Yahoo Finance’s bulletin board. It seems that the Federal Trade Commission is using Mackey’s pseudonym against him as they try to block Whole Food’s purchase of Wild Oats Markets as it would “limit competition among natural and organic groceries” (New York Times).
In his own defense Mackey wrote: “I posted on Yahoo! under a pseudonym because I had fun doing it. I never intended any of those postings to be identified with me.” (New York Times). It seems that his identity was not as well hidden as he may have hoped either. He was called out many times by fellow posters on Yahoo Finance’s bulletin often times by name. He finally admitted to his real identity upon losing a bet to fellow posters.
Is it okay for some to use pseudonyms and for others not to? I must say it seems more of an embarrassing faux pas by Mackey than anything else. What could make you feel sillier than having the whole country know that you were flattering your own haircut in a web forum? Perhaps Mackey took his fun a bit too far, but what can one expect of a vegan, to not be extreme???
In the end I do not think that this will lead to any great ramifications for Mackey or the Whole Foods company. Who can judge what negative banter on an online bulletin can really accomplish or if it had anything to do with the ultimate acquisition of Wild Oats?
My questions are many, but mainly this: Should status or rank in a company inhibit an online alter ego? Is the next step banning CEOs from World of War Craft for fear that the Whole Foods Orcs will demoralize the Wild Oats Elves with a crushing battle?
Filed under: Astroturfing, Authenticity, Blog Messaging, Blogger Ethics, Blogger Influence, Brand Ambassador, Shilling, Stealth Marketing
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For those of you who underestimate the power of what Mackey did in those boards, I just spoke to my college chum and fraternity brother (Phi Kappa Psi), David, and he told me that as a young analyst, there were legions who scrutinize the Yahoo groups and boards very carefully, looking for market indicators. He told me that he kept track and could see these little, small, conversations either precede changes in the stock market or catalyze the selling off or buying of stocks. There is a high concentration of influencers in these spaces and while “having fun” is fine and good, the ramifications are real, especially if “his identity was not as well hidden as he may have hoped” because that means that he was in fact revealing insider info to those people who are running Wall Street. Seriously!
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I agree that there would definitely be real ramifications in the market, but how do you measure those in terms of a case against Mackey? That’s the way I think he’s going to manage to get out unscathed… perhaps.
When you run a publicly-listed company, the laws are very stringent. Insider trading is merely “talking about stuff to your mates.” The laws on “fair market” and “market manipulation” are very lenient when you have a private firm but are very exact when you are public, triply so when you are the CEO and quadrupally so when you are talking smack about the company you want to take over and your comments could in fact drive down your out-of-pocket cost of acquisition. The entire thing has nothing to do with “proof” because the market doesn’t work on proof so much as it works based on the behavior of horses: are they spooked or not and if they’re spooked, will they stampede? I guess in this case, “the behavior of bears and bulls” is more apt.
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