Wednesday, August 15, 2007

QUIXTAR: Caveat emptor

Original Source

Caveat emptor
You can post a comment or trackback from your own site.

Reporter friends,

You may find yourselves on the receiving end of a phone call from a smooth-talking PR guy or slick-talking class-action lawyer, trying to peddle you a story about a guy named Orrin Woodward and his fight with our company.

Please be advised:

They may neglect to fill you in on the entire legal landscape in addition to their lawsuit. (They’re busy people; it happens.) You might, for instance, ask them to fill you in on how Mr. Woodward and his associates have been:

terminated by the company;
suspended from the board of their trade association;
been subjected to a temporary restraining order preventing them from looting our business;
been subjected to a second temporary restraining order obtained by their trade association lest they abuse their fiduciary and business confidentiality responsibilities to that group; and,
today, been ordered to show cause why they are not already in contempt of the first restraining order.
And that’s just in six days.

You should make sure that every person they claim is a plaintiff in their suit actually is a plaintiff in their suit. We already know that one of the people they told a reporter yesterday was suing us… isn’t. Oopsy.

You should be aware that when they tell you the plaintiffs account for 40 percent of our company’s U.S. business – well, they are making an exaggerated claim, which is one of the reasons we terminated them in the first place. The number might reach 15 percent — but that’s only if every single business owner they ever claimed affiliation with follows them out the door. Which we already know they won’t.

In short: should your phone ring with that sales pitch from Shughart Thomson & Kilroy or Ashton Partners, please know the folks at the other end of the phone represent people who are not so good with the rules (more on that later, but start here); not so good with court orders; and not so good with the facts.

Whatever they tell you about us, we’ll be happy to discuss. And, most likely, unscrew.

Whatever they tell you about anything else… well, word to the wise: if they tell you the sky is blue, you might want to look out the window.

Filed by: Corporate Communications
Posted in: Alticor, Amway, Quixtar, Transformation

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let the buyer beware of the lawyers that now run A/Q. But the market runs the business world and Q/A is going against the market.
An "Amway" approach spells economic death in the market place...sorry boys,but you are not Rich & Jay.
Sadly, the field no longer trusts you or the emasculated IBOA Board.

Anonymous said...

Good call, Russ. One point I would make in contention, though: If Quix-Am-Ticore is being run by lawyers now, why do the public documents they create have such a childish slant to them? Case in point: This letter to their "Reporter friends". Who says "Oopsy" in such a document? Second case: The (by now infamous) "Just Go, Team" blog on the Alticore Media Blog.
I agree with everything else you say, Russ. These antics simply add to the already over-burdening proof that the current "managers" of the Alti-Star-Way (whatever) business are not the "revolutionary leaders" that their fathers were. But lets not suggest that the company is being run by lawyers. Petulant children might be more apt...