Kwiker Out at Wherehouse Entertainment

Louis A. Kwiker, 53, is no longer running Wherehouse Entertainment, a partner with the New York investment firm that owns the Torrance retailer said Thursday.

John G. Quigley, general partner with Adler & Shaykin, which finished buying Wherehouse last month, would not elaborate other than to confirm the information to The Times. Quigley would not say what, if any, role Kwiker will have at the company or who will run it in the future.

Wherehouse is a chain of more than 200 stores, mostly in California, that rent videocassettes and sell records, compact discs and computer software.

Last October, Wherehouse became the target of a hostile takeover bid by Shamrock Holdings, a Burbank investment company owned by Roy E. Disney and his family.

Acting as a so-called white knight, Adler & Shaykin in December agreed to pay $14 a share, or $118 million, for the company’s 8.4 million shares of common stock. Wherehouse was later sued by investors holding some of the company’s $50 million in convertible bonds who claim that they could lose millions because Adler & Shaykin would only pay them about half of the face value of their bonds in the buyout.

Kwiker, who has been president and chief executive of the company, did not return calls.

A former lawyer and investment banker, Kwiker has been associated with the music business for more than 20 years. He first started working with Wherehouse in 1979 when he was hired as a consultant to turn the struggling company around.

In 1982, Kwiker became head of the company when founder Leon C. Hartstone died. Hartstone left instructions in his will that the chain be sold. Kwiker gained control by forming an employee stock ownership trust that bought a controlling block of stock from Hartstone’s estate.

A marathon runner, Kwiker is described by former employees and analysts as a driven, brilliant manager, but also a domineering man with a large ego who often clashed with other executives.

Kwiker’s cash compensation was about $312,000 for the year ended Jan. 31, 1987, according to a Wherehouse proxy statement issued last June. Kwiker has been praised by investors and analysts for expanding the company’s chain of stores, installing a storewide computer system and emphasizing such areas of business as computer software and video rentals. But he was also criticized by investors for letting the company’s earnings and stock price slip as its expansion and heavy spending took its toll on profits.

In Wherehouse’s last earnings announcement before it went private, the company reported that its net income in the nine months ended Oct. 31 fell 63% from a year earlier to $1.3 million, even though revenue rose 28% to $187.4 million.