majority stake in the company. Schnatter also filed a lawsuit against the company in Kentucky in a dispute over property ownership. In January 2019, a judge ordered the company to give Schnatter access to its records relating to his ouster. A settlement of the lawsuits was announced on March 5, 2019. Under the agreement, the company agreed to share all of its records with Schnatter and to remove a part of its "poison pill" plan that restricted his communication with other shareholders, and Schnatter agreed that he would not seek to stay on the company's board of directors after his term expired on April 30, 2019, and that if a mutually agreeable independent director was chosen to replace him, he would step down before the end of his term. Schnatter retained the right to sue if the records show wrongdoing by the company. The company also agreed to remove a requirement that the activist hedge fund Starboard Value, which owns about 10% of the company, must vote in favor of the incumbent board. As of March 2019, Schnatter remained the owner of 31% of the company's shares, but by May 23, he had sold 3.8 million shares and reduced his stake in the company to 19%. By November 2019, his stake was under 17%. In June 2019, the company was the fourth-largest take-out and pizza delivery restaurant chain in the world, with headquarters in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, part of the Louisville metropolitan area. In November 2019, Schnatter made his first public comments after leaving Papa John's to Louisville Fox affiliate WDRB. In the interview, he admitted he had used the word "nigger" during an internal conference call on diversity training, but said he did so to convey his hatred of racism and was quoting someone else. Schnatter said, "I've had over 40 pizzas in the last 30 days, and it's not the same pizza. It's not the same product. It just doesn't taste as good." He warned that "the day of reckoning will come". The interview subsequently went viral, with numerous parodies appearing online. In an interview three months later, Schnatter said he had not actually eaten over 40 pizzas in 30 days. Instead, he had tasted over 40 pizzas during that time, as a quality inspection activity. Schnatter also criticized the way the company had been run immediately after his departure by Steve Ritchie, who was described as his former