American Apparel Responds to WSJ Takedown

On April 12, the WSJ published a 2,600-word front-page article on American Apparel which painted it as fiscally out of control. Not long afterwards, one of those tiny and niggly corrections appeared:

American Apparel Inc.'s shares trade on the American Stock Exchange and not on the New York Stock Exchange as was incorrectly indicated in a graphic showing the company's share price that ran with a version April 12 page-one article about the retailer.

But check out the letter from American Apparel corporate finance chief Adrian Kowalewski which just got sent to Dealbreaker.

Apparently the company was extremely upset with the WSJ article. Kowalewski has a long list of issues he has with the WSJ report, but prefaces them all with this:

Our lawyers are currently pursuing this matter with News Corporation, so we have not yet issued a public statement.

Um, I think a detailed 755-word response counts as a public statement, it seems like the cat is out of the bag. So far, of course, there's no sign of any correction, so it seems that the WSJ is standing by its story. But at least now if you want American Apparel's take on it, you can read it on a public blog rather than having to phone up Kowalewski directly.