OpTree

Michael O. Johnson, Chairman and CEO of Herbalife was honored last week by A Place Called Home. Johnson was one of several people honored by A Place Called Home, a non profit youth center, at its 15th annual “Gala for the Children.”

A Place Called Home was founded in 1993 by Debrah Constance, to provide at risk youth with a positive, safe environment where they can learn valuable life skills. The organization also provides a safe haven for youth to keep them free of the influences of drugs and gangs.

Johnson received the Debrah Constance Humanitarian Award, named after the organizations founder, for founding the Casa Herbalife Program to help children around th world receive proper nutrition. Johnson founded Casa Herbalife in 2005 and today there are 40 Casa Herbalife programs in location all over the world, with plans for 15 more to be up and running by the end of 2009. A place Called Home was the first Casa Herbalife partner charity.

The event was held at the Beverly Hilton, other honorees included Adam Fogelson, president of marketing and distribution of Universal Pictures and Sheila and John Bryant, founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE. Hosting the event was American Idol judge Randy Jackson and the even also included a performance by Idol finalist Syesha Mercado.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Michael Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of global Nutritional Supplement Company, Herbalife , has just been announced as a presenter at the 15th Annual Goldman Sachs Global Retailing Conference.

The annual conference will be held in New York City on September 3rd and 4th, 2008 at the Marriot Marquis.

Other participants include, Walmart, BJ’s Wholesale, CVS, and Lumber Liquidators, just to name a few. The two day conference will feature top executives from some of the largest retailers across the world assembling to discuss the state of the retail market. Among topics that they will cover will be the economy, a possible recession and trends in consumer spending.

Johnson is scheduled to speak on September 3rd at 9:30 am Eastern Time. Goldman Sachs will present a live webcast of the presentation on the Herbalife website.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Herbalife has had a bit of a rough month as we have pointed out in several posts. The company yesterday announced that its board has approved a $150 million increase to the company’s share repurchase program.

The boost raises the total authorized value of the buyback program to $600 million.

As of April 28, Herbalife had 65.1 million shares outstanding so the new program will allow the company to purchase roughly another 3.75M shares on top of the already 11M it is repurchased since April 2007. The move may be significant because the company is taking more aggressive steps to own its shares as opposed to letting them be in the publics hands - or in this case, Minkow’s possibly. The company would have to come up with another $500M to take a majority position in the company (at today’s stock price) which leads me to believe that Minkow’s plan may actually backfire.

Think about this, if Minkow is successful in tarnishing the Herbalife brand from a PR standpoint and in particluar, as it relates to its stock, the company will need to come up with less cash to purchase its stock and take the company private. If this happens (going private) Minkow would not have the financial vehicle he is allegedly using today to finance his operations (it has been alleged that Minkow owns short positions in companies like Herbalife and USANA and the winfall profits he makes from the stocks going down from his “research” provides the financial capital for him to fund his operation).

A private Herbalife would have a mass of cash to focus on building the business, marketing its products through its distribution network and giving back to the community without having to deal with the distractions of being public. At this juncture, I really dont see any value in Herbalife being a public company. The focus should be on the distributors which make up the heart and soul of the organization and make them the shareholders through a private investment bonus pool that can reward and compensate success. While Minkow may be successful in bringing some issues to light, he does need to be careful that he doesnt push too far so that he is unable to fund his operations as he appears to be today.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Michael Johnson, Herbalife’s Chairman and CEO, took a big step today by going on Jim Cramer’s Mad Money show this afternoon.

Cramer, who is known for putting CEO’s to task, didnt hold back with Johnson at all. First Cramer asked about the Probert resignation which he answered and said it was a sad day. He even mentioned “FDI” aka Fraud Discovery Institute but never mentioned Mankow by name or the full name of the organization which was brilliant.

When asked about the lead issue, Johnson said that everything has been tested and that the issue is a non-issue. Even when asked about the Spanish Ministry claim, Johnson didn’t duck at all and said it was based on a article from 2004 and they have dealt with it. He also mentioned that not a single Herbalife product has been pulled anywhere in the world.

Johnson did great. He answered every question, didnt flinch and came across incredibly professional as he usually does. He was very impressive in defending both the allegations as well as the question about potentially taking the company private. Cramer even suggested that may be the best course of action to which it seemed Johnson seems like they have discussed it internally but doesnt seem like that is happening too quickly.

Big kudos for Johnson who was in NYC at the Avondale Conference today, for going on Cramer’s. You have to respect the guy for meeting the issue head on and addressing it using a national platform. Great job!

You can see the full video here which is worth a look.

Popularity: 2% [?]