Investors started taking sides in the boardroom brawl Bill Ackman started at J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP). But almost as quickly as it began, the fight appeared to be over, at least according to one publication.
Bill Ackman abandons push over J.C. Penney
Reports on this story have been coming out all day. Most recently, James Covert of the New York Post cited sources familiar with the matter who said Bill Ackman was abandoning his push to get rid of Chief Executive Officer Myron Ullman within the next 30 to 45 days.
Covert’s sources said it isn’t clear why Bill Ackman would concede defeat in his fight. It may be that Ackman has agreed to move forward with the CEO search at the slower pace desired by the rest of the retail chain’s board. It could be the end of the year before Ullman’s successor is finally agreed upon.
Sources told the New York Post that some sort of resolution to the all-out brawl between Bill Ackman and J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP)’s board will be announced as early as tomorrow.
Glenview, Soros, Perry took sides over J.C. Penney
Glenview Capital Management and Soros Fund Management were both said to have sided with J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP), report Bloomberg’s Matt Townsend, Beth Jinks and Katherine Burton. Representatives from both funds sent letters to the chain’s management saying that they were on their side and in opposition of Bill Ackman.
The only fund which appears to have come out in favor of Bill Ackman was Perry Capital, which took a more than 7 percent stake in the retailer and sent its own letter to the board. It sided with Ackman, saying that the search for Ullman’s successor should go faster.
J.C. Penney planning to oust Ackman?
The New York Post also reported that on Sunday when J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP)’s other board members met via phone conference, they decided that Bill Ackman had to go and that Ullman should stay. The report appears to go a step further than other reports indicating that the board was simply trying to decide how to deal with him. The publication cites one source as saying the board sees Ackman as “a cancer” and that it wanted to remove him.
It will be interesting to see what the so-called resolution between Bill Ackman and the board ends up being.
