Apple's VP Johnson joins JC Penney

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%.