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back to article Whole Foods CEO went after rival as a message board troll

Court documents reveal that organic grocer Whole Foods CEO John Mackey was an internet forum troll intent on undermining his main competitor through chatter. Using the pseudonym Rahodeb (a variation of Deborah, his wife's name), Mackey posted on Yahoo! Finance's bulletin board over an eight year period, claiming to be a huge …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    CEO time to go

    This CEO had that much time on his hands ?

    It was either

    a) childish (he need to go) or

    b) an attempt to reduce the competition's stock price prior to making an offer (he needs to be go via jail)

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  2. NotARegisterReporter

    Awesome reporting!

    It's clear that The Register is the #1 source for IT news!

    Speaking as someone who is definitely not the author of this article, I just want to congratulate everyone at your fine publication! Especially the handsome man who wrote this story. He must have hundreds of girlfriends!

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  3. heystoopid

    SEC

    SEC , should roast his backside and give 10 to 20 years hard time for stock fraud ! Because no matter which way you dress it it is still fraud!

    The Company Shareholders should launch a class action law suit to enable them to claim all his pension and assets and sack him without the usual severance pay and bonuses , for failing to look after their interests including failing to obey and follow all corporate governance laws !

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  4. Ed

    Typical

    Whole Foods Markets recently took over a local shop here in the UK, then closed it down and opened their new huge shop in Kensington, despite it being 2 or 3 miles away. We lost our local shop as a consequence. Throughout this, Whole Foods Market were completely unfriendly to the customers - sent back curt "tough luck" replies to emails, don't have a UK phone number and were generally rude and unhelpful. Its can't say its surprising that their CEO behaves like this.

    NotARegisterReporter: I'm not sure what you're trying to say - You wouldn't be John Mackey by any chance?

    heystoopid: I agree, although its highly unlikely he had any influence on the stock price, his actions seem very fraudulent to me...

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    re: awesome

    hey NotARegisterReporter. You can go fsck yourself. I like the Reg and its somewhat non-IT news stories. Besides, yahoo finance is an IT news item. Go blow a dead goat you whiner.

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  6. Darren Brooke

    re: re: awesome

    goddamn i lurve fridays!

    anyone else think that NotARegisterReporter is being ironic & a smartarse,

    or perhaps just doing the ironing?

    sad to see no paris hilton/iphone/ROTM angle, but i'm sure it'll turn up by the days end

    ;o)

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    NotARegisterReporter

    Nice try, NARR, but it's pretty obvious to me that you're Austin's girlfriend trying to trick him into confessing to two-timing online. That or maybe a sasquatch.

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  8. JP

    Speaking of which...

    What's happened to our dear Paris? I haven't got my hit of Blonde Junk for a while now, and El Reg is normally quite reliable for that...

    Is it because they've been bought and she's been told they don't need the free advertising any more?

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  9. Tobin

    Wtf is wrong with you people?

    Nice post NotARegisterReporter.

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  10. tim

    Surely he was looking after the company's interests

    Bigging up his own company while putting down the opposition surely is in the interest of his shareholders even if it is illegal

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  11. Morely Dotes

    Looks like what the SEC calls...

    "insider trading."

    It's the opposite of "pump & dump," and it's certainly illegal. If Whole Foods fails to dump him, then the company is at risk for illegal insider trading.

    Unfortunately (in this case; as a rule, I'd call it good luck), I am not a lawyer. I am, however, available to apply a little bit of "persuasion" for the right price. Interested parties may contact me through my associate Garret, sometimes to be found in his office in Macunado Street.

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