March 5 (Bloomberg) — Target Corp., still reeling from a security breach that exposed the personal information of tens of millions of customers, is seeking a new top technology executive as part of an overhaul of its operations.
The company is searching externally for a candidate to replace Beth Jacob, who had held the chief information officer post since 2008. The new executive will help revamp Target's information-security and compliance operations, Chief Executive Officer Gregg Steinhafel said today in an e-mailed statement. Promontory Financial Group will advise on the overhaul, he said.
Steinhafel has been has been working to keep customers coming into stores after hackers stole card data and personal information from millions of shoppers. The second-largest U.S. discount retailer last month posted fourth-quarter profit that topped analysts' estimates, signaling it's regaining shoppers' loyalty.
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Target also will elevate the position of chief information- security officer and hiring externally for that job, Steinhafel said.
Target, based in Minneapolis, fell 1 percent to $60.73 at 10:43 a.m. in New York. The shares had slid 3.1 percent this year through yesterday, compared with a 1.4 percent gain for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.
Jacob's resignation was reported earlier today by the Associated Press.
Breach Disclosure
Target said in December that credit- and debit-card data of 40 million accounts was stolen during the holiday shopping season and said in January that names and addresses for as many as 70 million customers was taken as well. U.S. sales after the data theft were disclosed were "meaningfully weaker," the company said in January.
Still, the retailer last month posted fourth-quarter profit of 81 cents a share, topping analysts' 79-cent average estimate.
Target spent $61 million responding to the data breach last quarter, including costs to investigate the incident and offer identity-theft services to customers. Insurance covered $44 million of the tab, leaving the company with an expense of $17 million in the period.
The expenses don't include potential claims by payment-card networks for counterfeit fraud losses.
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