Sears, once the world's biggest retailer, now faces bankruptcy

[lurch234]

Sears, once the world's biggest retailer, now faces bankruptcy

 

Unable to keep up with e-commerce, the 125-year-old company hasn’t turned a profit since 2010.

by Lucy Bayly / Oct.10.2018 / 11:41 AM GMT / Updated 11:50 AM GMT

 

The outdoor sign stands in the parking lot of a Sears department store in Saint Paul, Minn.

 

Sears, once the largest retailer in the world, is now reportedly facing bankruptcy.

 

The company, which hasn’t turned a profit since 2010 and is $134 million in debt, recently approached several banks to prepare for bankruptcy filing, CNBC reported Wednesday.

 

Shares plunged almost 20 percent on the news, and are set to open at a record low.

 

Sears CEO Eddie Lampert has been pumping funds from his own hedge fund, ESL Investments, into the company for years in an attempt to keep it afloat. Lampert owns a controlling share in

 

Sears, with 31 percent of its stock; his hedge fund owns another 19 percent.

 

In August, ESL made an offer to buy out Sears' well-known appliance brand Kenmore and the company's home improvement business. Cash from those sales would infuse the company with around half a billion dollars, which could stave off bankruptcy for a few more months. Sears sold off another legacy brand, Craftsman, in 2017.

 

Once a staple of Main Street and malls nationwide, the 125-year-old company has shut down over 100 stores in the last year, with 46 stores set to shutter next month alone. Sears and Kmart, part of Sears Holdings, operated around 1,000 stores in 2017.

 

Shares have fallen by more than 85 percent in the last year as e-commerce has taken over the brick-and-mortar retail space. Despite pairing up with Amazon in 2017 to sell appliances online, analysts say Sears has not kept pace with change nor made investments in the digital space to the extent that Walmart and Target have done.

 

Source

[dMog]

they have been out of Canada for over a year.... Timothy  EATON  was a multi-generation family owned CANADIAN BUSINESS   similar to sears.....they went out of business 30 years ago...Many factors go into this closure not just bad management decisions alone ...

[flash48]

This is a real shame.  Some of these big companies are run by old people.  The problem with this is as the world changes these corporations need to change with it, or they will eventually join the dinosaurs .  For instance take Kodak.  They invented the digital sensor which makes electronic cameras possible.  Kodak should have been king of the world.  But their management said we make our money by selling film and foolishly either sold their patents or licensed it to others.   Kodak's invention actually put them out of business!  IBM on the other hand saw the future and make the required changes to keep the company profitable.