(SeaPRwire) –
By: Maxwell Vance
PetMed’s current board has destroyed more shareholder value in five years than most failed CEOs manage in a decade. Back in July 2021, the stock traded at $32.30 per share. It closed at $1.76 on June 26, 2026. That adds up to a 95% total collapse. The company itself admitted in its latest 10-K. It said there is substantial doubt it can stay a going concern. This isn’t bad luck. It’s gross mismanagement. It’s a board that does not act like fiduciaries for ordinary shareholders. I talk to distressed asset analysts every week. Cases this blatant are extremely rare. The board is led by Chair and Interim CEO Leslie C.G. Campbell. He has sat by as cash drains out and strategy goes missing. The business has deteriorated quarter after quarter, with no pushback from directors. Most directors own almost no company stock, so they don’t feel the pain.
The board’s official line after its June 2026 earnings release is simple. It says it carefully evaluated two buyout proposals. Those proposals ranged from $4.00 to $4.25 per share. It claimed it ran a full process to solicit other buyers. Then it said no deal was better for shareholders than staying public. The board first demanded SilverCape accept a full year-long standstill to even open talks. SilverCape owns 12% of PetMed, after all. It is the largest single shareholder of the company. SilverCape offered a six-month standstill to get talks moving. That structure would have let the board run a full sale process while talking to SilverCape. The board rejected the offer out of hand, with no further discussion. It refused to negotiate even basic process terms.
SilverCape’s revised June 29, 2026 proposal lays bare what the board was hiding. There was no bona fide sale process. The board’s financial advisors did only perfunctory outreach to potential buyers. SilverCape never got meaningful engagement on its original $4.00 per share offer. It never even got feedback on how to improve its bid. The board’s public disclosure was misleading at best. At worst, it’s a deliberate effort to kill any sale that would boot current directors off the board. Board members have no aligned incentives with ordinary shareholders. They get paid to hold their seats regardless of performance. Since the original $4.00 offer in December 2025, PetMed’s business has kept getting worse. Cash reserves are draining at an alarming rate. Leadership turnover is constant. No credible turnaround plan has ever been put forward to shareholders. That is why SilverCape cut its offer to $3.00 per share. Even at that revised level, the price still carries a 70% premium to the current market price. It locks in whatever remaining value is left for shareholders before it hits zero.
The only acceptable path forward for PetMed is clear. The board must immediately engage in good faith with SilverCape’s revised offer. If it won’t do that, it must run a full, open marketed sale process for the entire company. Any director that blocks this path does not deserve to keep their seat.
Author bio: Maxwell Vance, a hedge fund manager specializing in distressed asset acquisition and public company proxy fights.