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Board: 'Artie T' not only bidder [Boston Herald :: ]
[July 30, 2014]

Board: 'Artie T' not only bidder [Boston Herald :: ]


(Boston Herald (MA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) July 30--Market Basket's board took a swipe at Arthur T. Demoulas yesterday, laying partial blame for the embattled grocery chain's upheaval on the former CEO, who has made a buyout bid for the company.



And, despite reports to the contrary, the board said Demoulas is "but one of several potential buyers" who "continue to express a strong interest" in buying the 71-store chain.

"While Mr. Demoulas' offer provides a path toward solving many of the problems he has helped to create, it is but one alternative among the options the board is reviewing," the board said in a statement.


The board did not respond to Herald inquiries about whether other suitors have submitted formal bids for the company.

"The board will continue to evaluate all of the alternatives and ultimately make its recommendation to shareholders," it said in a statement. "However, the board has no authority or right to force shareholders to accept an offer, as that decision rests solely with (them)." Demoulas last week offered to buy the 50.5 percent of Market Basket not controlled by him and his sisters. The stake is owned by a family faction led by rival cousin Arthur S. Demoulas, who last year gained control of the board that replaced the former CEO last month -- the latest development in a decades-long family feud. Arthur T. Demoulas declined comment yesterday.

The firing prompted many Market Basket workers to walk off the job and call for a customer boycott. Operations at stores and warehouses have ground to a virtual standstill and the company has lost tens of millions of dollars in sales and spoiled food.

While standard corporations would never release a statement slamming shareholders, family-owned enterprises often operate as more of a free-for-all, said Yale University management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld.

"In a family business you will often see emotions and egos take priority over best business practices," he said. "It's kind of a mutually assured destruction." Infighting brought down other large family empires in the past, said Sonnenfeld, founder of Yale's Chief Executive Leadership Institute, pointing to feuds that led to the sales of The Courier-Journal newspaper in Louisville, Ky., and California-based Sebastiani Vineyards to third parties.

"Frequently it ends as a scorched-earth approach unless some face-saving mediation steps in," he said. "These are not parties that are going to be able to work it out themselves." ___ (c)2014 the Boston Herald Visit the Boston Herald at www.bostonherald.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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