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Daily Archives: July 19th, 2015

When Will We Belong?


The mess that is America erupted in a clash between 2 radical groups, one Black and one white. This is the only country where freedom of speech and expression is universal even when those actions are not universally popular or accepted. The extremeness of the hate and vitriol went viral over social media and the news. These recent actions are the result of the Confederate battle flag being removed from a Southern State capitol. The controversy took on a life of its own when Historians and Extremely “biased”  spoke out against the removal but for different reasons. The “EB’S” consider it a symbol of their “Whiteness and privilege”  while the Historians consider it a part of  Confederate history as it relates to relatives who served in the Civil war. Whoever is Correct(?)the dustup show that there are still pockets of Radical Racism which are violent and potentially dangerous to non white residents of this country. Is it just me or has the Covert Racism of the United States emerged full-blown after the election of a Black man to the Presidency of the United States? This phenomenon(?) has been exacerbated by our high placed political leaders(?) who use the racial fears of their constituents to keep their offices and push their agendas which help no one but them selves and their big money donors. America was founded by immigrants who over time “stole”  the lands and resources from the “Native Americans” but that was OK or made Ok by the powers in the Government. That is similar or the same as the Government sanctioned segregation of years ago and still covertly occurs today. So today in 2015  we are fighting the civil war, a race war and a political war all of which are fueled by folks whose sole purpose is to keep the uneasiness between Races and people in general in order to maintain control of the Government  by way of electing purchasable officials. So I have to ask: When will we belong?

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Shareholders sue Sears over ‘unfair deal’ they say will benefit the CEO while killing the company


This article from June 2,2015 shows the imminent demise of Sears and Kmart.
CHICAGO — A shareholder class action lawsuit has been filed against Sears Holdings alleging the company’s plan to sell its prime real estate holdings to a trust controlled by CEO Eddie Lampert would strip the struggling retailer of one of its last remaining valuable assets, leaving it a debt-laden, money-losing renter in its own stores.

The proposed $2.5 billion sale, the suit says, will benefit Lampert at the expense of shareholders and hasten the demise of Sears, once a quintessential American retailer.
“The proposed transaction is a financially and structurally unfair deal,” the lawsuit says. “Sears and its stockholders would receive a severely inadequate cash payment that the defendant Lampert-controlled company may use to cover operating losses and debt obligations for another year or so, before stockholders are left holding the bag in an insolvency widely viewed as inevitable if the proposed transaction occurs.”
The proposed transaction would sell 254 Sears stores to Seritage Growth Properties, a real estate investment trust created by Sears Holdings. Lampert, a hedge fund billionaire who owns 49 percent of Sears Holdings, would control both the retailer and the newly formed REIT. The transaction is expected to close this month, with Seritage leasing the stores back to Sears at a cost of $150 million to the retailer in the first year.
The lawsuit, filed late Friday in Delaware Chancery Court, names Lampert, Sears Holdings, Sears board members and Seritage as defendants. It seeks to stop the proposed transaction, saying the $2.5 billion purchase price is a “paltry” amount that in the face of ongoing operating losses makes imminent insolvency a likely outcome for Sears, based in the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates.
“The complaint contains numerous factual misstatements and is legally without merit,” Chris Brathwaite, a Sears spokesman, said in a statement. “The company plans to contest it vigorously and believes the proposed real estate investment trust transaction will provide substantial benefits to Sears Holdings and its shareholders.”
The suit was brought on behalf of Sears shareholder John Solak by Robbins Arroyo, a San Diego-based law firm.
Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail research and consulting firm, was not surprised that the proposed sale-leaseback transaction would concern existing Sears shareholders, given Lampert’s controlling interest in both the buyer and seller. “Shareholders don’t want to be played for chumps,” Johnson said. “They’re rightfully guarding their interests.”
The retailer has seen its sales decline since Lampert combined Sears and Kmart in an $11 billion deal in 2005. The company reported losses of $1.7 billion last year, with revenue declining nearly 14 percent to $31.2 billion.
Sears Holdings closed 234 stores last year. At the end of its fiscal year Jan. 31, Sears Holdings operated 1,725 stores, including Sears, Kmart and Sears Auto Centers, 684 of them in properties it owns. That’s down from 3,949 stores at the end of its 2010 fiscal year.
In recent years, the company has spun off assets including Orchard Supply Hardware and Sears Hometown and Outlet stores, as well as Wisconsin-based Lands End, one of the few bright spots in the Sears Holdings portfolio.
The proposed sale, announced April 1, would transfer some of the best-performing Sears and Kmart stores to the real estate trust, the lawsuit says. As part of the transaction, the REIT has the right to capture half of the store space in the properties to rent to other tenants, shrinking the footprint of Sears and Kmart stores. Consumer electronics may disappear from some stores as they get smaller.
— Robert Channick, Chicago Tribune
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