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Oct 5 (Reuters) - Clothing retailer Wet Seal Inc replaced four of its board members with Clinton Group nominees, ending months of attempts by the activist investor to take control of the board.
The four seats give Clinton Group, which holds about 7 percent of the company, half of the board and puts it in a strong position to push for change at the struggling retailer, which has reported declining same-store sales for more than a year.
The retailer, which caters primarily to young women, recently fired its CEO and appointed former CEO Kathy Bronstein and retail industry veteran John Goodman to its board to turn things around.
Under the new team, Wet Seal has been trying to return to a fast-fashion model by maintaining light inventories to respond faster to new styles and trends.
Clinton Group called for a sale of the retailer and sought four seats on the board shortly after the firing of previous Chief Executive Susan McGalla in July.
Wet Seal in response adopted a shareholder rights plan, which it later withdrew, and offered to nominate two of Clinton's nominees to the board.
The talks between Clinton and Wet Seal appeared to collapse earlier this week when Clinton claimed that the retailer had backtracked on an offer to give it majority control of the board.
The company's board has 8 seats, with one vacant.
Shares of the Foothill Ranch, California based company closed at $3.14 on the Nasdaq on Thursday.
(Reporting by Arpita Mukherjee and Juhi Arora in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
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Keywords: WETSEAL CLINTON/