Friendly Ice Cream Corp. (FRN) said on September 28 that CEO John L. Cutter had quit. It wasn't clear right away if Mr. Cutter had been fired or quit on his own.
I mention that Mr. Cutter might have been fired because Friendly's biggest shareholder, Sardar Biglari, said this in a recent 13-D:
"The people who did the reporting talked to the Chairman of the Board of
Directors and management of the Issuer about the business, operations, and plans for the future of the Issuer. They also want Mr. Sardar Biglari and Dr. Philip L. Cooley to be on the Board of Directors. The Reporting Persons continue to look at the Issuer's business prospects and its plans for the present and the future. The Reporting Persons may talk with management, members of the Board of Directors, or other shareholders of the Issuer from time to time."
The Lion Fund L.P., Biglari Capital Corp., Sardar Biglari, and Western Sizzlin Corp. are the ones who have to fill out the forms (WSZL).
The Lion Fund, a hedge fund run by Mr. Biglari, and Western Sizzlin, a public company that runs and franchises restaurants, are the two most well-known groups.
Western Sizzlin
Biglari and others took over Western Sizzlin for good at the end of 2005 and the beginning of 2006. The board was replaced by people who controlled more than a third of the company. In its most recent annual report, Western Sizzlin said the following:
"In November 2005, we added Sardar Biglari, Philip L. Cooley, and Paul D. Sonkin to our Board of Directors. Then, in March 2006, Paul C. Schorr, III, A. Jones Yorke, J. Alan Cowart, Jr., Pat Vezertzis, Jesse M. Harrington, and Roger D. Sack, who had been our former chairman, quit the Board. At the same time, Mr. Sonkin said he wouldn't run again at the annual meeting of stockholders in 2006."
The Lion's Fund
Sardar Biglari, who is 29, is in charge of the Lion Fund. Philip Cooley is one of the people in charge of the fund. Biglari went to Trinity University with Cooley, where he taught. The Lion Fund started up a little more than five years ago, but Biglari ran it with his own money for about a year before he let other people invest.
Sardar Biglari
Biglari's story is interesting. When he was still young, he started an Internet Service Provider. Later, he started The Lion Fund. He often says that Warren Buffett has taught him a lot about investing. As Chairman of Western Sizzlin, his letter to shareholders is a lot like Buffett's annual letter.
