Sears will close 235 stores

[I-10east]

http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/blog/morning-edition/2014/12/up-to-speed-sears-announces-235-stores-to-close-as.html

[thelakelander]

It's only a matter of time before Sears goes the way of Furchgott's, McCrory's, Woolworth, and Montgomery Ward....

[coredumped]

I don't know, last quarter they broke even (not good but a start) and they have a TON of assets in real estate, not to mention they own Kmart, which they probably need to unload.

[spuwho]

Selling assets to prop up losing operations works as long as you have assets to sell. When Sears Holdings has no more assets to sell, BK will follow.

Montgomery Ward went through 2 of them before they finally shut the doors. GE Finance financed the last one with the last assets they had. It bought them 4 years.

Sears is stuck. They cant go any farther upmarket, its crowded. WalMart and Target own the lower market.

Institutional shareholders refuse to let them invest in needed brand repositioning by reducing dividends.

So the inevitable place for them is bankruptcy.

Mergers, store closures, asset sales, cant replace raw profit and ability to raise needed capital.

[Elwood]

Actually Kmart owns Sears.

[spuwho]

Actually Kmart owns Sears.

Neither.

While they technically merged, the new entity is called Sears Holdings. Former Sears shareholders are the majority holders of the new entity. KMart was declining, just a lot faster than Sears is today and ran to Sears.