Even though Ron Johnson didn't start Pacur, he was named the general manager of the company after Johnson's inlaws sold the company to Bowater in 1986 for 17 million. The source for this is a 12/18/86 Business Wire report, which I got off of Lexus-Nexus, so I don't have a link, but here is the relevent paragraph:
Bowater Industries plc announced the acquisition of the whole of the share capital of Pacur Inc. of Oshkosh, Wis. for an initial payment of U.S. $13 million in cash with a further maximum sum of U.S. $4 million payable in 1990 contingent on the results over the next three years.
Johnson remained at this position until Bowater (which changed its name to Rexam) sold Pacur (which changed its name to Rexam Extrusions) to Johnson and his wife for 2 million in 1997. (Source: 10/3/10 Oshkosh Northwestern))
In other words, Bowater bought the company for 17 million, let Johnson run it, and then sold it for... 2 million eleven years later.
Even if Bowater wanted to break-even and get out of Pacur what they paid for it, adjusted for inflation, that would be 24.9 million-- miles away from the 2 million that Johnson paid for it.
Running Pacur, is Johnson's only qualification in his bid for the U.S. Senate. Now we find that Johnson did such a lackluster job running that company that Bowater was willing to take a 23 million dollar loss to get rid of Pacur.
WAKE UP WISCONSIN!
Please take a second to give Feingold whatever you an afford He's neck and neck and every dollar helps!
UPDATE: A few folks in the comments have made the great point that selling something for 17M and then buying it back for 2M eleven years later was pretty savvy on Johnson's part. In other words, Johnson intentionally devalued the company in a masterful plot to buy it back and a much lower price. If this is true, keep in mind that Johnson was running the company the whole eleven years and had a fiduciary responsibility to a publicly traded company.
I do like where this take's though: He's either bad businessman or a weasel that screwed over the company stock holders.
UPDATE II: Don't get me wrong, Johnson may not be a good businessman, but he is great corporate guy and does fight hard for the top 2%. That's why he was won this award last night: