4 ms·

Because this kind of raiding is harmful to society.

mikestew 8y ago
How is it harmful? Sears was an empty shell long before the raiders showed up. They'd pissed away brand goodwill for years. 1993, they shut down their catalog operation. A year later, Amazon is founded. That long air-horn sound? Yeah, that's the boat you just missed, Sears. I could go on, but for all his faults Lampert is an unpleasant symptom of an untreated disease Sears has had for a while, not the disease itself.
- philjohn 8y ago
  Because it allows you to get out of paying things like pension liabilities, or suppliers.
  - mikestew 8y ago
    Sears was headed toward bankruptcy with or without private equity. My question is specifically addressed at the harm of private equity picking the bones of what is already some pretty sorry looking roadkill. Those pensions and suppliers weren't going to get paid no matter who owned Sears, not at the rate they were going before Lampert showed up.
- jstarfish 8y ago
  You're not wrong about its protracted demise, but people still paid money to get on the Sears boat based on good faith that the previous captains may have sucked, but the current one wasn't hellbent on ramming it into an iceberg, collecting the insurance money and leaving the passengers and crew to drown in his wake. The little people whose pensions and funds are either wholly or partially dependent on Sears are hurt by such malfeasance. That's not what the CEO of a company is supposed to do. It's unethical (for what little that means anymore). You might as well question how an IVF doctor implanting his own sperm in unsuspecting patients is harmful-- they wanted to get pregnant, right? I haven't read it, but I doubt that plan was enumerated in the Sears prospectus when Lampert took the helm. Letting such behavior go unchecked undermines faith in the economy-- the growth of which is fueled by peoples' ignorance of everything being out to fleece them.

How is it harmful? Sears was an empty shell long before the raiders showed up. They'd pissed away brand goodwill for years. 1993, they shut down their catalog operation. A year later, Amazon is founded. That long air-horn sound? Yeah, that's the boat you just missed, Sears. I could go on, but for all his faults Lampert is an unpleasant symptom of an untreated disease Sears has had for a while, not the disease itself.

philjohn 8y ago
Because it allows you to get out of paying things like pension liabilities, or suppliers.
- mikestew 8y ago
  Sears was headed toward bankruptcy with or without private equity. My question is specifically addressed at the harm of private equity picking the bones of what is already some pretty sorry looking roadkill. Those pensions and suppliers weren't going to get paid no matter who owned Sears, not at the rate they were going before Lampert showed up.
jstarfish 8y ago
You're not wrong about its protracted demise, but people still paid money to get on the Sears boat based on good faith that the previous captains may have sucked, but the current one wasn't hellbent on ramming it into an iceberg, collecting the insurance money and leaving the passengers and crew to drown in his wake. The little people whose pensions and funds are either wholly or partially dependent on Sears are hurt by such malfeasance. That's not what the CEO of a company is supposed to do. It's unethical (for what little that means anymore). You might as well question how an IVF doctor implanting his own sperm in unsuspecting patients is harmful-- they wanted to get pregnant, right? I haven't read it, but I doubt that plan was enumerated in the Sears prospectus when Lampert took the helm. Letting such behavior go unchecked undermines faith in the economy-- the growth of which is fueled by peoples' ignorance of everything being out to fleece them.