Yesterday’s release of a health care study showing heavy use of the state-funded uncompensated care pool and MassHealth programs by employees of large employers – and of Stop & Shop in particular – led Charley to ask why Lieutenant Governor candidate Deb Goldberg, whose family founded Stop & Shop, was so proud of its record of providing health care to its employees in her conversation with us. Alert commenter Patrick Hart chimed in that Stop & Shop was the target of a corporate takeover in the 1980s, which would seem to explain it, as Charley noted in an update to his post.
I asked the Goldberg campaign for confirmation. Campaign spokesperson Jennifer Kritz told me that, sure enough, Goldberg’s family has had no involvement with Stop & Shop since 1988. According to Kritz, Goldberg sees the takeover as having taken the company out of the hands of people who really cared about their employees. Kritz added that when Goldberg’s family ran the chain, all full-time and part-time employees were offered health care and pension benefits. Goldberg was confident that Stop & Shop would not be on that list if her family still ran the company.
So there you have it.
That’s an important clarification. I don’t know yet who I will vote for for LG, but we all need the truth to be able to figure that out.
How much they sold it for? It was pre internet days so it’s not widely available unless you have Lexus/Nexus (and lawyers with access to that on the site).
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Also, is anyone aware if candidates need to file any ethics reports giving general financial figures. My sense is no, until they are elected.
ethics disclosure rules only apply to elected officials. I’m sure they sold the chain for plenty, but that’s no surprise.
You can sneak a quick Lexus Nexus search for the good of the cause–a free and open exchange of information. Ok, I guess I’m asking you to do it for a bootlegged and open exchange of information.
if only I had free Lexis/Nexis! Any academic/gov’t lawyer types out there care to help us out? 🙂
I pulled a post-mortem article up that was in the Boston Globe from 1989. The article states:
…Avram and Carol Goldberg had substantially cashed out of Stop & Shop well before the leveraged buyout, and almost completely in the buyout.
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In 1985 they had a 13.5 percent stake. By 1986 their stake was down to 6 percent. They sold most of their stock to KKR in the leveraged buyout in March 1988, which, at $ 44 per share, brought them about $ 60 million.
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Hope that’s what you were looking for.
So she’s not in the zillioniare club. But I would not be surprised if her net worth is in the $100 million ball park.
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I assume she probably had a decent stash in her piggy bank / trust funds from a few generations of the family running S&S and then the stock market boom in the 80s / 90s balloned her investments. And who knows how much liquidity she really has…given the generational aspect of their wealth, I would not be surprised if a lot of the money is tied up in trust funds for the Goldberg’s that will be born in 2050.
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So maybe she has liquidity of only ten million…comfortable, but not Gabreili pay money. MAYBE Deb does need to fundraise?
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Ahhh…speculation based on very little facts…it makes your day far more interesting.
I’m with you, Frank, nothing like a good rumination, once in a bit.
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That $60 million looks to be the final cash out in 1988, if you notice, it mentions that over the prior few years, the family had been reducing their stake in the company. Presumably, there was some coin made there also.