Whole Foods CEO Admits to Message Board Posts

Updated from July 11

Whole Foods Market(WFMI) CEO John Mackey posted myriad company-boosting entries on Yahoo! Finance message boards under an assumed name during a period of eight years.

The online version of The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday that documents made public by the Federal Trade Commission revealed that Mackey used the forum to routinely cheer the company's financial results and insult potential merger partner Wild Oats Markets(OATS), which Whole Foods ultimately agreed to buy.

In his posts, Mackey used the name "Rahodeb" -- an anagram of his wife's name, Deborah. Here is a link to some of the posts on Yahoo!, which The New York Times Web site published in its story on Mackey.

Mackey's postings came to light as part of the discovery process in the FTC's lawsuit seeking to block the $565 million merger between Whole Foods and Wild Oats.

On Mackey's official blog on Whole Foods' Web site, he confirms his actions, but remains unrepentant: "I posted on Yahoo! under a pseudonym because I had fun doing it. Many people post on bulletin boards using pseudonyms.

"The views articulated by rahodeb sometimes represent what I actually believed and sometimes they didn't," he added. "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."

Shares of Whole Foods slipped 1.8% to $38.80 in Wednesday after-hours trading.

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