Life Technologies Corp. (LIFE), Affymetrix, Inc. (AFFX): Why Did My Stock Just Die?

Ricochet rabbit
For retailer J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP), yesterday’s 12% drop in its stock was a result of the manic way in which the company seems to respond to crises these day. This time it was dumping CEO Ron Johnson, who presided over the disastrous change in pricing strategy that drove away its customers in droves, and bringing back former CEO Myron Ullman, an acknowledged turnaround expert, but one who had been unable to get Penney’s going the last time he was at the helm.

Indeed, it was the need to shake the venerable retailer out of its torpor that led activist investor Bill Ackman to choose Johnson in the first place to come in and shake things up. That he did, though not in a way anyone expected. While there were many skeptics about Johnson’s ability to translate the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) experience from whence he came to a stodgy retailer, private equity investors aren’t exactly long-haul holders of a stock, and they desire a quick fix.

As has been endlessly dissected, Johnson changed Penney’s from its traditional door-buster-sale mentality to an everyday-low-price strategy, but customers instead chose to fool themselves into thinking they were getting a deal and shopped instead at rivals Kohl’s Corporation (NYSE:KSS) and Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M), which still employ that pricing plan. While Johnson did at last throw in the towel this year on his strategy, the board of directors apparently decided it was time a new, new face — which is really an old face — was needed.

That lack of stability is worrisome to the markets, as it projects incoherence in strategy. Despite his bona fides in retail, I’m not sure Ullman is the man for the job, because he wasn’t able to execute previously either. The markets apparently agree.

The article Why Did My Stock Just Die? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Rich Duprey.

Fool contributor Rich Duprey owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Apple, Illumina, Kimberly-Clark, Procter & Gamble, and Thermo Fisher Scientific. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple.

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