Ackman Rings Up Gain at Penney…For Now

UPDATED: 5:50pm EST - Score one more for Bill Ackman, the activist hedge fund manager and founder of New York City’s Pershing Square Capital Management.

Shares of J.C. Penney surged more than 18 percent after the retailer announced it has hired Ron Johnson, widely credited with the success of Apple’s retail operation.

Ackman is Penney’s largest shareholder and Penney is among Pershing Square’s three largest holdings, in addition to General Growth Properties and Fortune Brands. He is also a member of Penney’s Board of Directors.

According to sources, Ackman is responsible for recruiting Johnson to the one-gilded retailer.

你可能还记得，早在10月初，阿克曼收购了该公司16.5%的股份，房地产投资信托公司沃纳多房地产信托公司（Vornado Realty Trust）收购了9.9%的股份。

一周后，彭尼采用了一种毒丸-设计在一年内到期-这显然是为了阻止迅速的敌意收购。

In January, however, Penney named Ackman and Steven Roth, Chairman of Vornado, to the Board. As part of the deal they were able to name one additional board member.

So Ackman and his minion initially pitched Johnson the idea of simply joining the board, with the possibility of sometime down the road becoming CEO.

When Ackman told the board, he learned they had earlier tried to recruit Johnson to the board, but unsuccessfully.

The Board liked the idea of Johnson becoming CEO and Penney CEO and chairman Myron Ullman decided to think about some sort of succession plan.

结果是：在担任首席执行官6年多之后，乌尔曼决定辞去首席执行官一职，成为执行董事长。

Johnson, of course, has been Apple’s key leader in its retail strategy. He came up with the idea of the Apple store and the Genius Bar. And, if you’ve ever been to one you always had to be amazed, by the huge crowds in an otherwise empty mall.

The big question, of course, is whether Johnson can perform the same magic at Penney. Of course, creating the same buzz at a has-been retailer like Penney is a different challenge.

It is not a small stand-alone store, but rather a hulking department store that has been trying to find its identity for several decades.

However, those familiar with the situation stress not to look at Penney in a conventional manner, but rather as just one big box that you can put anything into and present any way you can. It is a clean slate for merchandising and marketing when Johnson formally takes over in November.

For Johnson, this is a chance to come full circle in the retail industry.

Before joining Apple, Johnson held a number of positions at Target. He is credited with playing a key role in developing new initiatives for branding, marketing and merchandising. He led the team responsible for launching the Michael Graves exclusive line of products, as well as the addition of other key brands to the store’s selection.

Not coincidentally, Ackman famously has an ill-fated investment in Target that he recently closed out.

After receiving his M.B.A. from Harvard, Johnson, who has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Stanford University, turned down a job offer from Goldman Sachs to work at old-line retailer Mervyn’s, working on a loading dock. At the time Mervyn’s was part of Target.

Now Johnson gets his chance to remake one of Mervyn’s old competitors. Investors certainly think he is a worthy investment, bidding up the value of Penney’s stock by more than $1 billion on Tuesday. Talk about learning your value quickly.