Aeropostale Inc. (NYSE: ARO) made the surprise announcement that it will reinstate Julian Geiger as its acting chief executive officer (CEO). The company is hoping that with a new CEO it can recover from the fall it has had over the past few years. Geiger will be assuming the role of Thomas Johnson, who took over for him back in 2010. The question is whether Geiger can pull Aeropostale out of its tailspin, while the answer is very complicated.

Tuesday, investors welcomed this changing of the guard, sending shares up over 20% from the previous day’s close of $3.24. In the weeks before this announcement, Aeropostale was bouncing off its 52-week low of $3.10. This is only the most recent part of a solid declining trend that started back in 2010 or 2011, which went from bad to worse in 2013.

Under Johnson, the company lost on all fronts. Looking at the 2014 annual income statement for Aeropostale, we see a net loss of $141.8 million for the full year. The previous year was in the black with a net income of $34.9 million, but this continued a downward trend in earnings from 2012, in which net income of $69.5 million was reported.

On the balance sheet we saw the cash and cash equivalents for the 2014 year were $106 million, a drop of $125 million from the previous year’s $231 million. This was already a serious cut to liquidity that was reflected in the price being pushed further down seen in the weeks after 2014 earnings were announced in February. Things have gotten worse since. That same cash and equivalents was down to $24.5 million as of May 3, 2014.

Julian Geiger’s return comes as a mixed blessing. Under his reign as CEO, Aeropostale had all-time highs for its shares and was generally successful within its industry. However, in his most recent venture as CEO for Crumbs Bake Shop, the company declared bankruptcy in July. Aeropostale appears to be taking a real gamble on this, but it may have had very little choice on who would step in to run the operation after this much deterioration.

Along with the announcement came word that sales were down 13% for the company’s latest quarter and that it was still having losses.

With almost an hour to the close Tuesday, Aeropostale shares were up 18% at $3.83 on 26.5 million shares. The stock’s 52-week range is $3.10 to $12.42.

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