Description: The news that George Soros has taken a 7.9 percent passive stake in J.C. Penney (JCP) brings to mind an old TV commercial from my childhood. In it, two boys stare with disgust at a bowl of Life cereal that their mother naively mentioned was good for them. They then push it in front of their little brother, a tiny curmudgeon named Mikey, who proceeds to gobble it up. “He likes it!” said less about the product (a testament to sugar and enriched vitamins) than the power of the person eating it. The child actor who played the mythical Mikey not only ended up on the box at one point; he came back years later to hawk the cereal as a young man.

Source: Businessweek.com

Date: Apr 26, 2013

Link: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-26/george-soros-isnt-dead-and-neither-he-hopes-is-j-dot-c-dot-penney#r=nav-r-story

Questions for Discussions:

• Why would an investment by someone like George Soros be so positive an influence on investors’ perceptions of a company?
• Do you think there is fundamentally more value at J.C. Penney?
• How do you expect investors to behave with respect to J.C. Penny over the next year or so?