Sears (OTCMKTS:SHLDQ) is on its deathbed, for real this time. CNBC reports that if a bid does not come in today by 4:00pm EST at market close, the 125-year-old retailer and ironically the first retailer to step away from the brick-and-mortar model with its iconic and history-making catalogue, will start the process of liquidation. Sears employs 68,000 people whose jobs are now in serious jeopardy. The only chance the company has of survival is a $4.6B bid by the retailer’s chairman Eddie Lampert. The problem is that he still has to secure funding for this and liquidity is getting tighter since the Fed started pushing up interest rates and corporate bond markets started to crack. Sears was once America’s biggest retailer and the first “everything store” but never successfully adjusted to the age of the internet as online retailers continually ate into Sears’ market share.
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I think "Malaria" = Melania Trump, who famously wore an ugly jacket with huge letters on the back that said "I REALLY DON'T CARE". https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/13/politics/melania-trump-jacket-i-really-dont-care-do-u/index.html
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/market-morning-equities-crazy-sears-120502868.html
Who is Malaria?
I hate that "online retailers" are always blamed as the main reason for Sears' demise. Sears killed itself, with no investment in stores or image, with the stupid libertarianism of Eddie making managers compete for resources instead of realizing that stores needed to be treated as an organic whole, putting its head in the sand WRT its brick & mortar competition.
Sure, online is a concern, but other stores are solving it. Eddie just didn't care. Maybe he could borrow Malaria's jacket.