Former CEO John Hewitt has agreed to sell all his shares in Liberty Tax to an investment group which will assume control of the tax services company. He will also resign his position as chair with four board members he appointed also resigning, the company said this week. That includes Nicole Ossenfort, who will retain her CEO job after the sale.
Liberty said this week that its founder will sell his shares of Class A and Class B Common Stock to Vintage Tributum, an affiliate of Vintage Capital Management, which is unaffiliated with Liberty and its shareholders.
The sale, expected to “close promptly”, will end Hewitt’s control of the company. Hewitt was fired in September after an investigation revealed complaints by employees who say they heard him having sex in an office. It was also alleged he favored female employees with whom he had romantic connections.
The Vintage deal ends the existence of Class B shares, via which Hewitt had retained control of Liberty. The B shares will all convert into Class A. Vintage purchased an undisclosed number of shares from other stockholders.
Liberty has also received a delinquency notice from Nasdaq for its failure to file its form 10-K for the year ended April 30. It has previously received notices for its failure to file form 10-Q reports
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind
