Arthur T. Demoulas Offers to Buy Market Basket

Arthur T. Demoulas has made an offer to buy the Market Basket grocery store chain from which he was ousted as CEO last month in the latest chapter of an ongoing power struggle between factions headed by Arthur T. and his cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas.

According to a statement published in The Boston Globe, Demoulas said he and his faction would attempt to purchase the 50.5 percent of Market Basket now controlled by the opposing faction. The amount of the offer hasn't been publicly disclosed, although Bill Marsden, director of operations at Tewksbury, Mass.-based Demoulas Supermarkets until his firing last month and Arthur T.'s onetime second-in-command, told Progressive Grocer in an earlier intervire that the company, which runs the Market Basket banner, was worth $4.3 billion.

It's also unknown at the present time whether Demoulas' board of directors is entertaining the offer.

Arthur T.'s dismissal has sparked rallies of employees fiercely loyal to him, at least one online petition signed by thousands demanding his reinstatement, and a call by Massachusetts and New Hampshire politicians to boycott the chain's stores in protest. Additionally, eight employees were apparently fired for organizing the events supporting the former chief executive.

The Globe reported that the family feud began in the early 1970s, when George Demoulas, one of the company founder's two sons, died and his children, one of whom is Arthur S., subsequently accused George's brother, Telemachus, of stealing their shares in the company.