Business
Edward and Ludmila Smolyansky Provide Update on the Definitive Consent Solicitation Process Currently Underway and Respond to Lifeway Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: LWAY)
Edward and Ludmila Smolyansky, long-term shareholders of Lifeway Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: LWAY) who together exercise voting control with respect to approximately 26% of the outstanding shares of Lifeway Foods, today provided an update on the consent solicitation process launched through the filing of a definitive Consent Statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on July 2, 2025.
About this update from Lifeway Foods, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"CHICAGO, July 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Edward and Ludmila Smolyansky, long-term shareholders of Lifeway Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: LWAY) who together exercise voting control with respect to approximately 26% of the outstanding shares of Lifeway Foods, today provided an update on the consent solicitation process launched through the filing of a definitive Consent Statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on July 2, 2025.","length":440,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"Consent Solicitation Gains Momentum","length":35,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":""Our outreach program is fully underway, as momentum continues to build behind our consent solicitation," stated the Smolyanskys. "We are encouraged by the positive response from fellow shareholders who share our concerns about the current Board's actions."","length":281,"tagName":"p","attribs":{}},{"type":"text","content":"Response to Lifeway Foods","length":25,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"On July 3, 2025, the Company issued a press release stating its view that the consent solicitation is legally deficient because the public filing of the Consent Statement does not constitute adequate notice to shareholders, and because the Board has not set a record date. The Company further "urged" shareholders to "disregard the Smolyanskys' recent filings…"","length":385,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"However, the Company failed to acknowledge that both a record date and a shareholder list were formally requested by Mr. Smolyansky in a letter dated June 17, 2025—a request that remains unfulfilled.","length":199,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"Mr. Smolyansky responded:","length":25,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":""Predictably, the Board is seeking to suppress shareholders and avoid accountability yet again. Regardless of which side they support, all shareholders should be offended that their directors, having already postponed the Company's 2025 annual meeting, are apparently planning to challenge our written consent based on their own failures to act. Shareholders do not need further evidence that this Board will never respond to Lifeway's shareholders until it is forced to do so under law, and we ask all shareholders to help us achieve that goal by signing and ...