Sears filed for bankruptcy protection, and now, activist investor Carl Icahn believes there could be potential in the beleaguered appliance giant’s bonds, telling CNBC, “We’re taking a look at them.”
The 125-year-old Sears has been in “survival mode” for the last decade, filed for bankruptcy on Monday, and plans to close 142 stores toward the end of this year (Sears once had 3.5k locations — there are now just 700 left).
Icahn lives for this sh*t
While it’s not unusual for big investors like Icahn to look for opportunities in bankrupt companies to profit from asset sales, Icahn has made a career out of it.
Over the years he’s made bets on the debt of past companies like auto parts maker Federal Mogul, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Tropicana Entertainment, and Blockbuster.
When asked to comment on where Sears went wrong, he said, “I’m not going to second-guess what they did… we all have our problems.”
Lampert is getting the brunt of the blame
Many blame ex-CEO Eddie Lampert for slashing the company’s flagship brands and assets over the years as it fell in sales to Walmart, Home Depot, and Amazon.
If you ask the former Sears Canada CEO, he would say Sears was “toast” the moment it closed its merger with Kmart back in 2005 — Lampert reportedly saw value in the retailers’ real estate and believed two fading giants was better than one.
Spoiler: They weren’t.
