“Two days after J.C. Penney’s board of directors ousted Ron Johnson from the chief executive role, hedge fund manager and board member Bill Ackman has broken his silence to say he’s sticking by the beleaguered department store retailer, according to a report.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Ackman told “Women’s Wear Daily” in his first public comments about the retailer since Johnson was fired. “In fact, we’re going the other direction. We’re digging in.”
On Monday, the company announced that former CEO Mike Ullman, who held the position from 2005 to 2011, would take over again in the middle of a planned multi-year turnaround that hasn’t gone well so far.
Last year, comparable same-store sales dropped 25 percent as J.C. Penney customers turned away from its new everyday low price strategy, which replaced heavy discounting and couponing.
As sales have slid, so has the value of both the company’s stock price and Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management fund’s stake in the company. The fund currently holds 17.8 percent of the retailer’s outstanding shares.
The fund manager helped recruit Johnson last year, and had previously defended him throughout the company’s struggles but turned more critical of Johnson on Friday, shortly before he was fired….”
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