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August 03, 2011, 5:06 PM EDT
By Adam Satariano and Jeff Green
(Updates with closing share price in last paragraph.)
Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. hired search firm Egon Zehnder International to lead the recruitment of a new retail chief, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Ron Johnson, Apple’s senior vice president in charge of retail, is becoming chief executive officer of J.C. Penney Co. on Nov. 1. He departs as the computer maker expands internationally. Of the 40 stores the company plans to open this fiscal year, 28 will be outside the U.S. Apple, with 327 total stores, made $3.5 billion from its retail operation in the third quarter, up 36 percent from a year earlier.
Steve Dowling, a spokesman for Apple, declined to comment, as did Teri Schram, a spokeswoman for Egon Zehnder.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that Egon Zehnder was hired by Apple. The executive search firm, founded in 1964, has 370 consultants working from 63 offices in 37 countries, according to its website.
Apple, the world’s second-most valuable company behind Exxon Mobil Corp., is facing a spate of executive departures. In addition to Johnson, Mac software chief Bertrand Serlet and marketing executive Allison Johnson have left in recent months.
Johnson, a former executive at Target Corp., is credited with building up Apple’s retail business. The first two stores were opened in 2001 in a bid to diminish Apple’s reliance on outside electronics retailers to sell its machines. The gambit worked: Apple’s sales per square foot of retail space were $4,355 in 2010, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. That’s almost 30 times those of J.C. Penney, and two-thirds higher than luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co.
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, rose $3.66 to $392.57 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have gained 22 percent this year.
--Editors: Jillian Ward, Nick Turner
To contact the reporters on this story: Adam Satariano in San Francisco at asatariano1@bloomberg.net; Jeff Green in Detroit at jgreen16@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
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(Updates with closing share price in last paragraph.)
Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. hired search firm Egon Zehnder International to lead the recruitment of a new retail chief, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Ron Johnson, Apple’s senior vice president in charge of retail, is becoming chief executive officer of J.C. Penney Co. on Nov. 1. He departs as the computer maker expands internationally. Of the 40 stores the company plans to open this fiscal year, 28 will be outside the U.S. Apple, with 327 total stores, made $3.5 billion from its retail operation in the third quarter, up 36 percent from a year earlier.
Steve Dowling, a spokesman for Apple, declined to comment, as did Teri Schram, a spokeswoman for Egon Zehnder.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that Egon Zehnder was hired by Apple. The executive search firm, founded in 1964, has 370 consultants working from 63 offices in 37 countries, according to its website.
Apple, the world’s second-most valuable company behind Exxon Mobil Corp., is facing a spate of executive departures. In addition to Johnson, Mac software chief Bertrand Serlet and marketing executive Allison Johnson have left in recent months.
Johnson, a former executive at Target Corp., is credited with building up Apple’s retail business. The first two stores were opened in 2001 in a bid to diminish Apple’s reliance on outside electronics retailers to sell its machines. The gambit worked: Apple’s sales per square foot of retail space were $4,355 in 2010, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. That’s almost 30 times those of J.C. Penney, and two-thirds higher than luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co.
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, rose $3.66 to $392.57 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have gained 22 percent this year.
--Editors: Jillian Ward, Nick Turner
To contact the reporters on this story: Adam Satariano in San Francisco at asatariano1@bloomberg.net; Jeff Green in Detroit at jgreen16@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
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