Aug 28, 2014, 3:12am EDT
Market Basket is effectively back in Arthur T. Demoulas's hands.
After an eight-week battle that threatened to destroy the 71-store supermarket chain - and after years of bitter fighting in court between factions of the Demoulas family - shareholders aligned with Arthur S. Demoulas agreed late last night to sell control of the business to a group led by ousted CEO Arthur T. Demoulas.
The price is reportedly more than $1.5 billion.
A final deal is likely to take months to close and during that period co-CEOs appointed by directors loyal to Arthur S. Demoulas will stay in place. But the company last night issued a statement announcing the sale and imploring customers to return. Many had boycotted the chain beginning shortly after the firing of Arthur T. and others who might have wanted to continue shopping at Market Basket locations were unable to after the depletion of inventories.
'The shareholders and the Company would like to thank Market Basket customers and partners for their strong support through the years. Our shared goal is to return Market Basket to the supermarket that its customers have come to rely on for service, quality and best prices,' the statement reads in part.
The company also invited all Market Basket employees to return to work. It's unclear how long it will take them to restock shelves and for Market Basket to restore relationships with vendors who absorbed in some cases huge losses during the recent strife.
Here's the full statement:
Market Basket and its shareholders are pleased to announce today that the Market Basket shareholders have entered into a binding agreement pursuant to which the Class B shareholders will acquire the 50.5% ownership interest of Market Basket currently owned by the Class A shareholders.
Posted by Unknown on Thursday, August 28, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
0 comments "Arthur T. Demoulas is back at the helm of Market Basket"
Post a Comment