In one of those “you just can’t predict everything that comes up in a government investigation” moments, this David Kesmodel and John R. Wilke/WSJ ($) article (free NY Times article here and free WSJ Deal Journal post here) reports that Whole Foods Markets CEO John Mackey has been a longtime pseudonymous contributor to a Yahoo stock-market forum on both Whole Foods and its proposed merger partner, Wild Oats Markets, Inc (prior posts here):

For about eight years until last August, the company confirms, Mr. Mackey posted numerous messages on Yahoo Finance stock forums as Rahodeb. It’s an anagram of Deborah, Mr. Mackey’s wife’s name. Rahodeb cheered Whole Foods’ financial results, trumpeted his gains on the stock and bashed Wild Oats. Rahodeb even defended Mr. Mackey’s haircut when another user poked fun at a photo in the annual report. “I like Mackey’s haircut,” Rahodeb said. “I think he looks cute!”
Mr. Mackey’s online alter ego came to light in a document made public late Tuesday by the Federal Trade Commission in its lawsuit seeking to block the Wild Oats takeover on antitrust grounds. Submitted under seal when the suit was filed in June, the filing included a quotation from the Yahoo site. An FTC footnote said, “As here, Mr. Mackey often posted to Internet sites pseudonymously, often using the name Rahodeb.”

Whole Foods is certainly a different type of place. Somehow, I just can’t envision Jack Welch or Hank Greenberg in their heyday trolling the internet message boards debating the relative merits of their companies. But beyond the public embarrassment to Mackey, the FTC achieves little by “outing” his message board persona. Has the FTC’s case against the Whole Foods-Wild Oats merger really devolved into a personality conflict?