[What’s killing Sears? Retirees, the CEO says] http://www.topbuzz.com/article/i6601114591449580037?user_id=6515002671820521481&language=en®ion=us&app_id=1106&impr_id=6601154504341588229&gid=6601100529173004549
12 replies (most recent on top)
Riiiiiiiigggghhhhtttt. How can a CEO point at everyone but himself? Pathetic leader.
Sears prior to the merger had some close calls with BK during its glory years due to some poor business decisions and mounting debt that never went away.
There was always enough cash flow around to hide the fact that the company , after all considerations was barely making money. Why do you think there was a massive sell off of divisions and consolidation of departments beginning in the 1980s? It wasn't all about efficiency as much as it was about necessity .
Sears, prior to the merger, was always profitable, and never at risk of bankruptcy at the time. Kmart was bankrupt. Then Eddie swept in, and made sure both companies ran out of money.
While seeing him in jail would be nice, I suspect he has had dozens of lawyers along for the entire ride and pretty much has covered himself. So I will not be surprised to see something like what happened about a year ago where $50 million was paid due to a lawsuit about the whole Seritage thing. And nobody went to jail. Remember that in a court of law if the majority of shareholders (E and his clan) say they believe the company did its best, it will go far in helping convince a judge that the penalty, if any, is just $$$ and nothing more.
Yea Sears has been on a decline for years but he had an opportunity to change that. It was his fault. He has a job to do as CEO to turn this company around. He had decisions to make. He made horrible decisions and is still making horrible decisions.
One could say that it was Eddie that saved Sears and Kmart from closing back in 2005 when he formed this "perfect union" because nobody else was stepping up to bail out the bankrupt struggling companies. However, he did not save them to bring them back to their former glory, he only raped them and stripped them of any and all value that they had left in their many , many stores that were left standing. It has taken 13 years to strip and loot and burn through 150 years of assests that these 2 once proud companies had left. Now he has the gall to blame the retirees for the loss of the company.
Hi Kevin and Mike.
I just "love" this guy. He never wants to take the fall for this company, just pass the buck on everyone and/or everything but him! Our lord St. Eddie, so humble! So wise! So gentle!
And people keep wondering why they want this company to just die, it is not because we want the actual hard workers to suffer but because we want to see Eddie Lampert squirm and sweat as he sees his little house of cards fall right in his face.
Though sadly, I'm pretty sure he already has an escape plan; a golden parachute ready to go in case this happens but he wants to keep this game going for his own sick profit and pleasure I suppose.
Eddie wants money to keep the charade going. Not to put in his pocket and not to put in stores (as noted he never did and never will) Eddie needs to delay the bankruptcy, why? Because he will go to jail! Why do I say that? Because he’s done a lot of shady stuff which is documented and the minute he defaults on debt and the pension fund, he opens himself up to fraudulent conveyance litigation and other fraud allegations.
Keep in mind he’s been stripping Sears of assets and putting them into other things (that he conveniently either owns or has controlling interest in). It’s all fine and good as long as sears can pay it’s obligations. The second that they can’t, the feds, creditors and vendors will swarm. He better have the boat gassed up and pointed to international waters the day they file.
Glad to be a burden to the goofy pri-K
All FastEddie wants to do is pad his pockets, the worst head of a retailer in the history of this country -
"If Sears could have put that money into operations, “we would have been in a better position to compete with other large retail companies, many of which don’t have large pension plans,” Lampert wrote in a blog post."
That's disingenuous at best, because even when the company was flush with cash, Eddie refused to use it on the stores, instead using it to buy back shares. There has been and never will be a greater waste of cash resources. That lies squarely at the feet of Eddie.