Come See the Softer Side of Sears

The WSJ reports that yesterday (I totally missed it) Big Ed announced they'd jettison the real estate - a drunk hobo nearby reportedly overheard him say, "If only I had thought of this 6 years ago!".

Sears is selling 11 stores to General Growth Properties Inc., the company that owns the malls they anchor, for $270 million. Sears also intends to raise $400 million to $500 million through a rights offering, spinning off a company that will control roughly 1,250 small but profitable franchised stores that sell Sears products.

For the remaining 2,000-ish stores:

executives offered few new specifics about their plans for Sears over the next couple of years, reiterating their intention to use technology to revive the fortunes of the more than 2,000 remaining Sears and Kmart stores.

Phew, technology will save them. Glad they covered that one /end sarcasm.

They also are verbally stating that a Land's End sale is not off the table, the one piece of the pie that my wife is convinced has any value at all (she bought me a nice sweater and button up shirt from Land's End for Valentine's Day, reaffirming that we are, in fact, old and prudish). I like the real estate play - there is value there - but the timing is off.