Money and Finance
- Links
Eddie Lampert video excerpts from the Sears Holdings Annual Meeting (LINK) Buffett’s Berkshire Discloses $528.7 Million Verizon Bet (LINK) The Verizon investment was probably taken by one of his backup stock pickers, Todd Combs or Ted Weschler, based...
- Eddie Lampert: Turnarounds And Transformations
Link to: Turnarounds and TransformationsAt Sears Holdings’ annual stockholders meeting this week, we talked a lot about the difference between turnarounds and transformations. I want to share some of those thoughts here. Turnarounds happen when...
- Eddie Lampert's Letter To Sears Shareholders
Link to: Eddie Lampert's Letter to Sears ShareholdersI am writing to you after my first full year serving as both your Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. While our financial results remain challenged, 2013 may have been the year that justifies...
- At Sears, Eddie Lampert's Warring Divisions Model Adds To The Troubles
Every year the presidents of Sears Holdings’ (SHLD) many business units trudge across the company’s sprawling headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Ill., to a conference room in Building B, where they ask Eddie Lampert for money. The leaders have made...
- Eddie Lampert Issues Letter To Sears Associates
Yesterday, Sears Holdings announced our results for the third quarter of 2007. While we were not pleased with these results, much of the commentary in the media and on Wall Street following the results ignores the strength of our company and the progress...
Money and Finance
Bronte Capital: Sears Holdings liquidation sale
The case made below about a liquidation valuation not being the best way to look at Sears because of the large number of employees is similar to the points made by Mohnish Pabrai at the Pabrai Funds Chicago Annual Meeting earlier this year. A good item to add to one's investment checklist.
We have been short Sears Holdings, publicly, albeit in small quantity. Being summer in Australia I did not even look at the market for the last couple of days - but got into work for some congratulatory emails as Sears stock is off very hard on an announcement of truly awful sales, the closure of 100 to 120 stores and $1.6 to $2.4 billion of non-cash charges. (More about the charges later on.)
I look pretty smart putting a Sears short on in November - and kudos is gratefully accepted but undeserved. I was short Sears at my old firm when the Eddie Lambert controlled K-Mart took them out for considerably more than they were worth. It was not the only time that happened to me - but multiple stabs don't dull the pain. I would gladly swap kudos for a refund of my then clients' money.*
The premise for owning Sears was property liquidation. The company owned many of its sites - sometimes on book at low historic values reflecting the company's long and once glorious history. Eddie Lambert and his merry-men were going to extract that value through selective store closures and super-profitable liquidation. Sears was an awful retailer (there was little doubt about that) but it was - they thought - a good property play.
My view: owning Sears as a property play is a demonstration of the arrogance and breathtaking naivete of much that passes on Wall Street. Sears Holdings has over 300 thousand employees. I don't know how you successfully liquidate a business integrated with that many lives. I don't know of anyone who has ever successfully liquidated a business with that many employees.
- Links
Eddie Lampert video excerpts from the Sears Holdings Annual Meeting (LINK) Buffett’s Berkshire Discloses $528.7 Million Verizon Bet (LINK) The Verizon investment was probably taken by one of his backup stock pickers, Todd Combs or Ted Weschler, based...
- Eddie Lampert: Turnarounds And Transformations
Link to: Turnarounds and TransformationsAt Sears Holdings’ annual stockholders meeting this week, we talked a lot about the difference between turnarounds and transformations. I want to share some of those thoughts here. Turnarounds happen when...
- Eddie Lampert's Letter To Sears Shareholders
Link to: Eddie Lampert's Letter to Sears ShareholdersI am writing to you after my first full year serving as both your Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. While our financial results remain challenged, 2013 may have been the year that justifies...
- At Sears, Eddie Lampert's Warring Divisions Model Adds To The Troubles
Every year the presidents of Sears Holdings’ (SHLD) many business units trudge across the company’s sprawling headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Ill., to a conference room in Building B, where they ask Eddie Lampert for money. The leaders have made...
- Eddie Lampert Issues Letter To Sears Associates
Yesterday, Sears Holdings announced our results for the third quarter of 2007. While we were not pleased with these results, much of the commentary in the media and on Wall Street following the results ignores the strength of our company and the progress...