Saving Sears Doesn’t Look Easy Anymore

THE NEW YORK TIMES— By all accounts, Edward S. Lampert, the billionaire hedge fund manager whose investment savvy earned him renown as “the next Warren Buffett,” is a man not accustomed to rebukes.

But that is precisely what the stock market delivered in mid-January as Sears Holdings, the Kmart and Sears combination engineered by Mr. Lampert in 2005 and his hedge fund’s biggest holding, sank to $86.02 a share. It was a level last seen three years ago, just after the ballyhooed merger was announced, and far below the stock’s peak of $193 in April 2007. In the course of nine months, $14 billion in market value had evaporated. Read article.