> I've read suggestions that he'll make out better in the long run by reselling that valuable real estate than lifting a finger to save Sears' retail operations

> I've read suggestions that he'll make out better in the long run by reselling that valuable real estate than lifting a finger to save Sears' retail operations. These investment firms saw the huge amount of expensive real estate that these retail stored owned and figured that's where the money is. Unfortunately for them, the reason the real estate was expensive was because of the store and when they slowly ran them into the ground they dramatically decreased the value of the property. McDonald's has a similar issue; they are both a fast food franchise company and a real estate company that owns and rents out a lot of the property the restaurants sit on. There is a strong group of investors that want to split the company across these lines because the real estate part is much more profitable. But running one without the other is probably a huge mistake.