Activist investor William Ackman resigns from J.C. Penney's board

NY Post ^ | August 13, 2013

[xzins]

William Ackman has resigned from J.C. Penney Co.'s board as part of a deal to resolve an unusually public battle between the activist investor and the struggling department store operator.

J.C. Penney's rose in premarket trading Tuesday.

The announcement follows statements Ackman made last week saying he'd lost confidence in Penney's board and that its Chairman Thomas Engibous should be replaced. Ackman and the retailer's board also were bickering over how quickly the company should replace CEO Mike Ullman.

Ackman's investment firm, Pershing Square Capital Management, has a nearly 18 percent stake in Penney.

Penney's board also made it clear that it continues to support Ullman, who was brought back as CEO in April. Ullman had previously served as Penney CEO from 2004 to 2011.

The dispute has been a distraction for a retailer trying to dig its way out of trouble.

Ullman had replaced Ron Johnson, who was ousted as CEO after 17 months because his radical makeover led to massive losses and sales declines.

Ullman has been working to stabilize the business by bringing back basic merchandise and more frequent sales eliminated by Johnson in a bid to attract younger, hipper customers.

[IronJack]

I’m not sure what perishables Sears sells, but that’s a low-profit/high-waste market anyway. Maybe one they should leave behind.

Sears has some cred left in products like appliances, tools, and some furnishings. I would work to become THE go-to source for those items in the e-market, putting the capital saved from moving away from brick-and-mortar into building the best-in-class lines in those areas.

If you insist on keeping the K(rap)-Mart overhead, maybe that would be the place to locate your perishables.