William Ackman has resigned from the board of JCPenney Co. Inc. (Plano, Texas) after a public spat over the retailer’s new direction.
Ackman, whose investment firm Pershing Square Capital (New York) owns 18 percent of JCPenney, has recently been a loud advocate for replacing current interim ceo Mike Ullman as quickly as possible. Last week, Ackman said he'd lost confidence in JCPenney's board and that it was moving too slowly to get a new, permanent chief executive in place. Ullman had returned to take the position he had lost in 2011, when Ron Johnson was recruited from Apple Inc. (Cupertino, Calif.), WWD reports.
Ackman also wanted Tom Engibous replaced as chairman and had made the announcement, prematurely as it turned out, that former JCPenney executive Allen Questrom was returning to head the board.
In the disagreement, unusually public for so private a company as JCPenney has always been, shareholders Soros Fund Management LLC (New York) and Glenview Capital Management LLC (New York) voiced its support for Ullman and Engibous. Perry Capital LLC (New York) sided with Ackman. Soros owns 7.9 percent of JCPenney stock, Glenview 4.3 and Perry 7.3, according to Reuters.
JCPenney has named Ronald Tysoe, former vice chairman of then-Federated Department Stores Inc. (Cincinnati), to fill Ackman’s seat on the board, The Washington Post reports.