The row about what Cadbury CEO Todd Stitzer did or did not say at that Bank of America Merrill Lynch conference earlier this week is turning increasingly nasty.
Here’s the latest from Bloomberg:
Cadbury Plc contacted the U.K. Takeover Panel over “serious misrepresentation” of Chief Executive Officer Todd Stitzer’s remarks at an investor conference, according to spokesman Trevor Datson.
“We have proactively been in contact with the panel in regards to some of the serious misrepesentation of Todd Stitzer’s comments,” Datson said by phone, declining to comment further.
Let’s hope BofA/ML and Simon Archer, the specialist sales guy whose note caused all the fuss, have a transcript of their conversation with Todd. Otherwise, they could be facing a very public rap on the knuckles from the Takeover Panel.
Anyway, Todd tried to undo some of the damage on Thursday night with a speech to a fair trade conference.
See if you can guess which company he might be talking about. From the Guardian:
Speaking at a fair trade retail conference in London today, Stitzer defended his firm’s “principled capitalism”. Without it, he said, “you risk destroying what makes Cadbury a great company.
We see this principled capitalism, which has been woven into the very fabric of Cadbury over the course of almost two centuries, as fundamental to our ways of working and part of our identity and success. Take it away or dilute it and you risk destroying what makes Cadbury a great company.
Painted with a broad brush, it [capitalism] is characterised as a one-way relationship in thrall to profit margins and shareholder returns. But I have always believed there is more than one type of capitalism. It is true that unbridled capitalism can be a destructive beast, not just to those it does business with but to the company itself. History shows that those who operate in this way inevitably come undone. They over-leverage and under-invest to the detriment of the whole enterprise. The recent past has presented numerous examples, which all business leaders and shareholders would do well to learn from.
Could it be Kraft which, you may recall, bought RJR Nabisco in 2000 — the company whose takeover in 1988 by private equity firm Kolhberg Kravis and Roberts prompted the book “Barbarians at the Gate“.
Just a thought. And here’s another. Perhaps Todd should be limiting his public speaking engagements until this bid battle is over.
Related link:
Stitzer under fire over Kraft comments – FT
Did he really say that? Part II – FT Alphaville
Did he really say that? – FT Alphaville