[funkboy]

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news...d=a5E.HNmQSBgs

Kmart Holding Corp. agreed to buy Sears, Roebuck & Co., the largest U.S. department-store chain, for $11 billion to create the third-biggest U.S. retailer.

How can this happen? KMart just filed for bankruptcy about two years ago... it doesn't seem right that they can purchase a company now.

Here's information about their bankruptcy:
http://money.cnn.com/2002/01/22/companies/kmart/

Could someone with a better understanding of this situation please explain to me what's happening?

[Macola]

Their stock is valued at twice that of Sears. Some hedge fund investor is behind the deal, I forget his name, but apparently he has a lot of cash to throw into it.

[ManOfSteal]

Hmm, I heard they merged...nothing about K-Mart buying Sears.

To answer your question though, it would be "plausible" for K-Mart to do such a thing if they really wanted too through a "Leverage Buyout" or some sort where they pool their assets (property, inventory, etc.) together to sustain the needed loan for the buyout; however, that would be difficult pending that they would have to buy out all the shareholders of Sears as well.

[BasketofPuppies]

There isn't a customer base for Sears anymore. People either shop at department stores or discount stores. Sears was somewhere in-between the two. Its prices were too high for discount store customers and it didn't have the snob appeal of department stores.

As a result, Sears, for the last few years, has been attempting to reposition itself as a discount store. And failing miserably.

That's why Kmart is buying Sears and not the other way around. (Though they say that both brands will remain.)

[wdlove]

Sears just isn't the store that it once was.

[JHromadka]

As long as Craftsman tools still exist I'm ok with it.

[Eriamjh]

This is some effed up news. How can KMart buy Sears for $11 billion?
I thought they were bankrupt!

[tooki]

Originally posted by wdlove:
Sears just isn't the store that it once was.

Well, it hasn't been for many years.

I love seeing the stuff Sears and Roebuck used to sell back in the 1800s and early 1900s by mail, such as vibrators (which back then were sold as household appliances used to cure "hysteria" in women) and heroin, which they sold in kits with hypodermic syringes and everything. All that just a few pages away from shoe polish, churns, and farm gear.

tooki

[Zimphire]

Originally posted by BasketofPuppies:
There isn't a customer base for Sears anymore. People either shop at department stores or discount stores. Sears was somewhere in-between the two. Its prices were too high for discount store customers and it didn't have the snob appeal of department stores.

As a result, Sears, for the last few years, has been attempting to reposition itself as a discount store. And failing miserably.

That's why Kmart is buying Sears and not the other way around. (Though they say that both brands will remain.)

BIIIIING Give Basket a cigar.

Mom has worked for Sears for 17 years. She saw it coming.

[Zimphire]

Originally posted by tooki:
Well, it hasn't been for many years.

I love seeing the stuff Sears and Roebuck used to sell back in the 1800s and early 1900s by mail, such as vibrators (which back then were sold as household appliances used to cure "hysteria" in women) and heroin, which they sold in kits with hypodermic syringes and everything. All that just a few pages away from shoe polish, churns, and farm gear.

tooki

Yup Heroin cured alcoholism don't ya know?

They seen it as a cure because drunks were mean. Heroin attacks were nice.