Posted on 11/17/2004 3:37:25 AM PST by bikepacker67
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Kmart Holding Corp. on Wednesday said they would merge in an $11 billion deal to form the third-largest U.S. retailer.
The companies said in a joint statement that the new company, Sears Holdings, will have about $55 billion in annual revenues, 2,350 full-line and off-mall stores, and 1,100 specialty retail stores.
Fon't the French own K-Mart?
Kears?
Sear-Mart would be hot.
S-Mart?
Sears will be introducing Martha Stewart designer license plates in their auto shops. Each pair will be personally made by Martha from prison.
Leni
How about S-Mart?
K-Mart is a publicly traded company on the NYSE. Sears is as well.
This is a huge surprise, if this is true. There has been absolutely no talk about a merger of this kind at all.
K-Mart has been talking about moving their company headquarters within the state of Michigan, possibly to the Grand Rapids area, or to another state. There has been no talk that in the Michigan papers that K-mart was looking for a partner.
Now there will be "Big S" stores? This is a Mutt and Jeff union.
I'm greatly surprised, too.
But looks like AP has the story, too:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20041117/ap_on_bi_ge/kmart_sears_merger
Sears is very interested in breaking out of their mall type anchor store mold to compete with the likes of Wally world.
Two companies with two failed business plans merge.
Sounds like a plan for success.
Hm, so there could be co-brand stores at K Mart sites? Or they would just close the K-Mart and open a Sears.
Here in Kalifornia they will probably go for a niche market and call the store Kasa-Marto
Willie Green is going to have dozens of stories to put up as vendors and staff are cut out of these tow old line companies.
What this also does is give more market exposure for the newly merged company, with K-mart being the cheap cousin, and Sears being the middle-class cousin.
When you mentioned Sears HQ in Chicago I mentally pictured what a "K-Mart Tower" would look like.
"Shop smart, Shop S-Mart"
Is there any way we can all keep this from my wife? I have enough Ginsu knives, Bamboo steamers, et al...but wait there's more...... Please no mas....
"Two companies with two failed business plans merge."
Same thing I thought when HP bought out Compaq. They should have left Compaq die the natural death it was on track to do. My opinion is ... only thing Compaq brought to the table was their bad name.
Thats Target.
loser + loser = LOSER
...so there could be co-brand stores at K Mart sites? Or they would just close the K-Mart and open a Sears.
They will actually do a little of both, where K-Mart brand identity is strong and profitable, they will stay K-Marts, but be merchandised more like Sears store, think Craftsman tools, appliances, etc.
The prime real estate spots will definitely be converted to stand alone new concept, "Grand Sears" stores. Modeled after the Wally World type concept, Food, Clothing, Garden center, etc,
Craftsman tools at K-Mart?
Wait a minute - they're now available at the Navy Exchange, cheaper than out in town.
The jokes for the late nighters just kind of start writing themselves.
Sears has really turned into a high quality customer focused store. They have been bits of both over the years but have improved in both areas of late IMO.
I was looking - well, actually drooling - over a 52 flat screen TV the past Saturday at Sears. The salesman walked up and offered without my asking: "You bring me the best price you can find on that TV (new) anywhere from any source and I will beat the price by 10%."
A merger of losers.
AOL + Time + Warner ad infinitum. The synergy is awesome.
AOL has created an ISP called Netscape to salvage the customers leaving its overpriced service.
What will come of Lands End? Will it like Netscape become the synergistic repository of the Martha Stewert brand?
Yes, but will they sell shotguns?
Fascinating trend - BTT
ROTFL !!!!!!
Didn't Sears buy Lands End a few years back? What did that gain them?
I had the exact same experience. Last year for Christmas, (before I worked for Sears) I went shopping for a big screen TV. I went to all the electronic stores with not very success. The "toddlers" who were on the sales room supposed to be helping me understand what my options were to make a decision I was comfortable with were your typical snot faced geek that didn't care a bit.
I was actually shopping in Sears for my wife and walked past their T.V. dept.
I was very surprised. Not only was their selection far superior and pricing very competitive, the sales person actually had a functioning brain.
Needless to say, I bought Sears.
Lots of expensive inventory
This would be all well and good except they both suck. They can't compete with WalMart.
At least ping the guy, so he can get warmed up.
Obviously the majority of folks who've posted here are much more well informed on politics than you are on the market.
1. Kmart is not French-owned. It's publicly traded, and if you want to see who owns the largest shares of their stock, it's pretty easily found out by opening a proxy report and reading it. But since there are those of you who are too lazy to do that, I'll tell you that 53% of the shares are owned by board members.
2. Sears is the 2nd most successful retail organization in the country, behind Walmart. Target is doing quite well also, but Sears has a much better footprint in a lot of areas that Target doesn't exist yet.
This buy-out (it will be Sears buying Kmart, after all) will provide Sears with the opportunity to go head-to-head against Walmart in markets where their current stores just are too small to compete. In addition, it allows the larger Sears stores to not have to play the 'discount' game where they have to have sales every week just to attract customers. This should be a win all around, other than in the boardroom in Troy Michigan (Kmart HQ) where most of those idiots will be canned, appropriately so after they drove Kmart to bankruptcy.
A decent Craftsman tool section might get me into a K-Mart. I haven't been in one in years.
Please direct your comments to the correct poster.
Also blame Bush for the layoffs..
Their target shopper is going to be a little more upscale than the typical Wally World shopper. Plus this is really all about real estate.
Location means everything to a retailer and Sears Stores currently are trapped in these huge malls that have built - in competition, expensive leases, limited growth, etc.
Sears can compete, not on all fronts, but I think it will be interesting fight.
Sears also has several extremely profitable divisions like home improvement that certainly helps their cash flow to compete
"Needless to say, I bought Sears."
They do work you over hard on the maintenance agreements, which I am sure is where they make up the difference in sales price. But like you, I tire of the big box electronic retailers hiring "sales people" whose knowledge of the products ends with what is on the outside of the box.
Craftsman Tools are also a good deal. I bought one nice set 20+ years ago and everytime I ding or break one, I simply take it to the Sears Hardware Store and get a new one, no questions asked. I have returned hammers where my over swing snapped the handle out and they replace it. If I were a contractor or mechanic, I would shop nowhere else for handtools. (I would for electric and rechargeables.)
Back when Sears was closing all their "outlet" stores and regrouping in the 90's there was a hint of this.
A small hint, but one none the less.
K-mart advertised at that time they would exchange and honor all Sears/Craftsman tool guarantees. That was odd.
Craftsman had worked their line of tools to compete with all the big hand tool manufactureres (Snapon, MAC, etc.) and to allow k-mart's chinese 3-cent garbage tools to honor their guarantee didn't make economic or in-trade sense.
Then it was revealed that k-mart was contracting tool supplies from sears' low-end tool line with a full life-time warranty.
Today we have a merger and the rest of the story!
spell check is your friend...
The Capt.
(cant make heads nor tails out of your post...just saying)
S-Mart has already been done in the Evil Dead movies by Sam Raimi. At least they have a model to work with for this merger.
Wow... knew something had to happen with Kmart, or it was going to just go under eventually... but didn't expect Sears to pick it up....
Sears Card now accepted at Kmart... now you can buy chinese products at 25% interest. Good move for Sears.
Sears is refocusing on service, which is good, but also, far from being a failed business model, Sears is a force to be reconned with. What people fail to understand about sears is they are not a murchandizing company... not any more. THey are a CREDIT company, with some merchandize out front. They have made more money on credit for a long long time now than they have on retail margins.
Sell products, primarily on your own brand of credit card at 18 to 25% interest, with very low payments on the balance per month and it really doesn't matter how much margin you make on the product, and you make a lot of $$ in the process.
They bring their brand of credit to Kmart stores.... they will be rolling in even more $$$. Overall good move for Sears, and one I didn't see coming.
I gave up on Sears awhile back, but after I heard of their generous benefits to the families of their employees/Guard and Reserve troops, I gave them a 2nd look. I have spent more money in Sears in the past year, than the previous 10.
Ummm... actually, it looks more like K-Mart acquiring Sears. At least by how the stocks are going to be dealt with.
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