Venator was featured in the "Bottom Line" segment on
CNNfn's "Moneyline" Friday by Bill Dorman. Greenway
Partners' Alfred Kingsley, whose company is Venator's
largest stockholder with 14% ownership and who "staged a
losing proxy fight this summer to make a series of corporate
changes," including changing the name "Venator": "We'd
settle for 'Foot Locker' as a decent name. But Venator?
Doesn't do it for us, and I don't think it does it for very
many people." The Nat'l Retail Federation's Rick Gallagher,
on Venator: "I think they clearly hit the bottom of this
retail trend. The question now is how they're [going to]
build this business back up." Brown Bros. Harriman's Donald
Trott, whose firm downgraded Venator stock last week, which
sent the company's stock "skidding": "We ... still see a lot
of good things ahead. It's simply a matter of the timing of
those good things becoming more apparent." More Kingsley,
who feels that Venator should sell all of its real estate
holdings: "When they can concentrate as the largest retailer
of athletic footwear and apparel ... they will do much
better, because they will be concentrating and focusing on
this one area" ("Moneyline," CNNfn, 8/20).
