The country’s largest department store operator is firing 13% of its corporate employees as a new CEO prepares to take charge. And for consumers with $3,500 burning a hole in their pockets, a new mixed reality headset goes on sale Friday.

Macy’s chops 2,350 jobs

Jeff Gennette, CEO of Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M) since 2017, is retiring at the end of this month, and Tony Spring, who has run the company’s Bloomingdale’s stores, will take over. The Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday that Gennette and Spring sent around a memo saying the job cuts are the result of consumer research indicating that the firings will help the company “to both better meet their expectations and to generate consistent growth.”

That sounds more like answers researchers might have turned up from investors. Or, precisely, one activist investor group that has proposed taking the company private in exchange for $5.8 billion in cash. Arkhouse Management, a firm specializing in real-estate investment, and asset management firm Brigade Capital Management offered on December 1 to buy Macy’s for $21 a share in cash, a premium of about  32% based on the previous day’s closing price.

Macy’s has yet to respond to the offer, but firing a bunch of people signals that the company is taking the offer seriously. And the job cuts could either demonstrate that Macy’s is serious about getting its house in order and plans to fight the takeover bid. Or, the firings indicate that the offer price should be higher. Either way, customers probably don’t care, but shareholders do.

Since December 1, Macy’s stock reached a high of $20.52 on December 11, but has since dropped back to just under $18.00.

Apple’s Vision Pro goes on sale

The Vision Pro mixed reality headset from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) became available for preordering Friday morning, with first deliveries to Apple Stores and customers on February 2. In case you missed it, the price of the headset is $3,499.

While Vision Pro sales are not touted to add materially to Apple’s revenue, what may be worth watching will be delivery times. The longer it takes Apple to meet its orders, the more demand there is for the headset. It’s not much, but it’s something.

A major weight on preorders and sales may be the lack of unique Vision Pro apps from Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify. In a statement issued Thursday, Netflix said its customers who want to watch Netflix content on the Vision Pro will be able to do so on the web using the iPad app. YouTube released a similar statement. Both have said they have no current plans to develop a specific app for the headset.

App Store iPad apps will be available in a new Vision Pro store in addition to their usual App Store location. Apple took pains to make it easy to transfer iPad-compatible apps to the Vision Pro, but so far, at least, developers have chosen to wait and see if there’s demand both for the headset and specialized apps for it.

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