Biglari Holdings Responds to Adoption of Poison Pill by Cracker Barrel Board of Directors

Sardar Biglari, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Biglari Holdings Inc.

, issued the following statement regarding the adoption of a poison pill by the Board of Directors of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc.

: Today the Board of Cracker Barrel implemented a restriction that effectively prevents any shareholder from purchasing more than 10% of the Company. The Board has created this poison pill as a response to our nonexistent interest in buying up to 49.9% of the Company. To implement an entrenchment strategy is one thing. But to say the stratagem results from our trying to do something we have repeatedly stated we are not going to do is more than disingenuous — it is misleading. We filed a regulatory requirement with the Federal Trade Commission (

) and Department of Justice to give Biglari Holdings the option to purchase more than 10% of Cracker Barrel. But our intention was that even if we were to purchase additional stock, we would keep ownership well under 20%. (Besides, under Tennessee law, each share over an ownership of 20% cannot be voted by that stockholder.) In fact, as part of our FTC filing we specifically wrote to Cracker Barrel and provided a copy to the FTC stating that "Biglari Holdings is not seeking to acquire control of Cracker Barrel." In meetings, we told Chairman Michael Woodhouse that we have purchased stock for investment purposes only. Simply put, the 10% poison pill is part of the Board's entrenchment scheme which must end because it affords Board members immunity, not accountability, and in doing so disenfranchises all shareholders. Because the Board cannot make a solid argument for the poison pill, its members are distorting our intentions even though we have told them and the regulatory authorities that we are not seeking control.