History
The company was founded in 1997 as an umbrella for the various media and merchandising ventures linked to the Martha Stewart brand. It went public on the NYSE on October 19, 1999. The stock opened at $18 a share, but shot up to $38 a share, making Stewart an instant billionaire on paper.
She served as president, chairwoman and CEO of the company until being forced to resign as a result of the ImClone insider trading case. As part of an agreement with the SEC, she was banned from serving in any role that would allow her to prepare, audit or disclose financial results of a public company until August 2011. In effect, this banned her from serving as an officer of her own company. However, she still owns a 96 percent controlling interest.
Stewart rejoined the board of directors of her namesake company in September 2011 and became its chairwoman once again in May 2012.
Read more about this topic: Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“In all history no class has been enfranchised without some selfish motive underlying. If to-day we could prove to Republicans or Democrats that every woman would vote for their party, we should be enfranchised.”
—Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947)
“Social history might be defined negatively as the history of a people with the politics left out.”
—G.M. (George Macaulay)