Apple’s
vice-president for retail Ron Johnson will leave the company in August.
He will succeed Mike Ullman, who has been chairman of American
department store chain JC Penney since 2004.
Genius Bar
Ron
Johnson was the inventor of Apple’s “Genius Bar”, where customers can
get tech support for free. He has been responsible for Apple’s Stores
since the first one opened in 2001 – overseeing over 320 later store
openings in 11 different countries. Since then, they have attracted over
a billion people.
52 year old Johnson will face a serious challenge at 1100 store chain JC
Penney, where sales have been dropping for the last three years as
consumers left the chain for cheaper discounters like Target – the chain
where Johnson, in a strange twist of fate, worked for 15 years before
moving to Apple.
JC Penney claims Johnson will buy Penney shares for 50 million dollars
to show “his faith in the long term potential of the group”. The news
overjoyed investors and the share prise soared to +17%.
