The FTC alleged in its complaint against Tempur Sealy filed back in July that the manufacturer wants to acquire Mattress Firm to squash all competition. However, the court documents shed light on a somewhat sinister and calculated plan for when the deal goes through, and the specifics are pretty damning.
Things may be tougher for Tempur when they get to their December court date and try to fight the FTC complaint, and here’s why:
- Mattress Firm is referred to as a “kingmaker” by both Scott Thompson, Tempur Sealy CEO, and Mattress Firm executives because of its ability to make mattress brands successful. That’s a pretty eerie term for a mattress retailer, and it insinuates something more sinister.
- We know that Serta Simmons Bedding, Nectar and Purple were specific targets of Tempur. About Nectar, the document said a Tempur Sealy vice president wrote “hopefully we buy (Mattress Firm) and take them off the floor.” The court file alleges a vice president of a Tempur Sealy subsidiary said depending on Serta Simmons’ competitive response, Thompson “will push them completely out the door at (Mattress) Firm.”
- Casper was also allegedly pushed off the floor by an under-the-table handshake agreement between Mattress Firm and Tempur, the court file says. The complaint alleges that Thompson told Tempur Sealy executives to “please inform them that if Casper goes on the floor we will be rolling out 500 Sleep Outfitters stores in their market. … Our roll out will hurt there (sic) IPO and when their shareholders ask me why we rolled out stores I will tell them Casper issue they did not honor. … Someone will be fired.”
These are just three points from the released documents — who knows what’s in the unreleased files. Short of mattress-world domination, the company clearly plans to strengthen itself and Mattress Firm to a point that it dominates both sectors of the market and silences serious competition.
What puzzles me is how executives could be so seemingly careless in communications when it knew it was going to be investigated for the merger. Regardless, from what executives have said according to the documents makes this sound like a clear monopoly to me. I hope that once this gets to court in December, the judge will think so, too.
