I don't like the way this looks

George Zimmer has been fired. Yes, you know who he is. He's the ever dapper "You're gonna love the way you look, I guarantee it" guy. The founder and Executive Chairman of the Men's Warehouse was summarily dismissed by the board of director's today, one day before a scheduled shareholder's meeting which was abruptly cancelled. No official explanation was offered.

Now the company is publicly traded and Mr. Zimmer is reported to hold a little over 3% of the stock which would make him a wealthy man by itself. But why would a very well known, and by all accounts successful business sack the founder and public face of the company in such an extremely abrupt manner?

Disclaimer: I have no financial interest in the company. I don't really believe in owning individual stocks and have never been a customer of the company. But this seems bizarre. It's almost like KFC firing Colonel Sanders without any explanation. WHY? What could be the motive?

If you have differences between a CEO and the board you normally ease the CEO out quietly. In the case of a man as well known as Zimmer who also founded the company, you throw him a retirement party and hand him a gold Rolex along with the keys to a beachfront condo.

Are there reasonable grounds for treating someone this curtly? Sure. If there is credible evidence of moral turpitude, i.e. some gross violation of ethics or maybe criminal misconduct then you absolutely hit the eject button. But as far as I know that is not alleged.

But what else could it be?

Getting back to my Colonel Sanders analogy, I suspect that either the colonel was caught messing around in the hen house or the Board of Directors has been hijacked by PETA.