Dive Brief:

• Ryan Drexler, president of private equity firm Consac LLC, wrote a late August letter saying that women’s apparel retailer Bebe has lost its way under president and controlling investor Manny Mashouf since the departure of his ex-wife, creative director Neda Mashouf, after their 2007 divorce. Mashouf owns 54% of the company’s shares.

• Drexler also questioned Bebe’s relationship with SKID Holdings LLC, which the retailer pays $500,000 a year for consulting services and of which Mashouf is president.

• In his letter, Drexler urged shareholders to consider a sale or taking the company private.

Dive Insight:

Consac’s late-summer activist-investor move didn’t bode well with its fellow investors: Shares fell 3.3% after the letter was made public. But Consac president Ryan Drexler has a point. Bebe’s sales and shares have more or less been falling since Neda Mashouf’s 2007 departure, and the retailer has done little to expand its e-commerce efforts.