Lululemon's board called founder Chip Wilson's turnaround plan "misguided" and "outdated" in a shareholder letter on Monday and set June 25 as the proxy-vote date. [1] [2] Wednesday closed with no follow-through from Wilson: no Schedule 13D amendment, no settlement re-engagement, no new shareholder letter, no public statement. The paper's Tuesday brief on the board's response took the position that one collapsed exchange was not yet a durable retail-governance memo. Day one is consistent with that position.
Settlement talks had broken down the week prior. [2] The dispute pits Wilson's 8.4% stake against a board defending expansion beyond core yoga apparel into running, golf, and men's categories — the company says those categories drove 19% revenue growth last year. [1] CNBC framed it as the proxy war going public; CNN and Entrepreneur logged the "misguided" language. [1]
Wilson's prior public escalations — open letters going back to 2024 — eventually produced filings. The question Wednesday's silence raises is which clock is running: a proxy fight that lands in a 13D before June 25, or a settlement track that lands in nothing because both sides decided to lower the temperature. Neither has surfaced yet.
-- MAYA CALLOWAY, New York