"Arnal was named as a defendant in a class action lawsuit accusing him, Ryan Cohen and other large shareholders of engaging in a "pump and dump" scheme to artificially inflate the price of the company's stock."
If I had to guess, he was more afraid of the legal ramifications of being sued.
Still a tragic loss of life, but paints a little more accurate of a picture.
Sizeable companies juggle hundreds of lawsuits simultaneously. Mostly even the financial press doesn't highlight it because to a large company most lawsuits aren't "material" which means they don't have to be detailed in public SEC filings. They can be a big deal to an individual who, say, had their life ruined from a product defect, or lost their life savings, but they're mosquito bites relative to corporate finances.
The normal reaction from executives is irritation and propaganda against 'frivolous' lawsuits and plaintiff lawyers.
If someone is in mental distress who knows what would put them over the edge, but I don't think such a lawsuit constitutes any sort of explanation in itself.
Yes, some background, he had about a 10% stake in BBBY and sold out of it during the recent bull-run, the announcement of the sale caused the stock to crater 60% or so.
More seriously, if he was emotionally deeply invested in BBBY, having to fire 1 in 5 workers and close 150 stores was probably devastating. I also understand he held a large amount of stock in BBBY which has lost a significant amount of value, and was named as a defendant in a class action suit (something about misleading statements about BBBY's finances, I'm not across the details).
Maybe he was facing the prospect of bankruptcy, or otherwise not being in a position to enjoy retirement?
Even at current prices he has millions of dollars in stock. People think in illogical ways, but I feel the reason must have been more than just financial.
If I had to guess, he was more afraid of the legal ramifications of being sued.
Still a tragic loss of life, but paints a little more accurate of a picture.