Whole Foods ends probe, supports Mackey

AUSTIN, Texas Whole Foods Market's board of directors has completed its investigation into online financial message board postings related to Whole Foods and Wild Oats Market.

According to Whole Foods, a special committee of its company's board of directors, along with its independent counsel, invested the postings made by ceo John Mackey, and has turned over their findings to the Securities and Exchange Commision.

Whole Foods has reaffirmed its support of Mackey and has no further comment due to the ongoing SEC inquiry.

In July, Mackey confirmed that he had submitted a number of postings to the Yahoo! financial bulliten boards regarding Whole Foods and Wild Oats under the name "rahodeb." He added that the comments he made did not always reflect his personal views and that he was merely playing "devil's advocate," in order to stir up discussion on the topic.