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The Wall Street Journal reported that the chief executive of Whole Foods Market Inc. , John Mackey, wrote anonymous online attacks against one of his rivals, Wild Oats Markets. While this might happen more than we care to admit, the reason this might be considered a crime is, at the time, Whole Foods was trying to buy the smaller company, and the CEO was trying to drive to price down.

The CEO posted on Internet financial forums under the anonymous name, “rahodeb,” saying that Wild Oats stock prices were too high, and predicted the company would go into bankruptcy and its stock would fall below $5 share. Last February, Whole Foods announced it planned to buy Wild Oats for $18.50 a share, or $565 million.

This was all made public as part of an FCC lawsuit against Whole Foods on antitrust grounds, with the FCC contending that, by combining the two largest natural and organic retailers in the country, it would concentrate too much power and diminish competitiveness.

The company acknowledged that the CEO was responsible for those comments, but said they were taken out of context. "Mr. Mackey made those postings from 1999 to 2006 under an alias to avoid having his comments associated with the company and to avoid others placing too much emphasis on his remarks," Whole Foods said.

One post stated: "Would Whole Foods buy (Wild Oats)? Almost surely not at current prices," rahodeb wrote. "What would they gain? (Their) locations are too small."

The company said that Mackey's opinions "now have far less relevance than when they were written. In addition, like most people, Mr. Mackey's opinion about some things has changed over time." While this isn’t exactly what we mean when we say companies need to protect against insider attacks, Whole Food concluded by saying the comments were Mackey’s, and not those of the company. Isn't that like saying the opinions of this blog are not the responsibility of the author?

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