Sears spent $6 billion on share buybacks after 2005 while its stores crumbled and competitors ate its lunch. Revenue collapsed from $44 billion in 2010 to $22 billion by 2017. The company chose to prop up its stock price instead of fixing what was actually broken.
Are you in the deal room? And buying back its own stock after 2005. Think about that. While their stores were getting old and dingy, while their website was a decade behind, and while new competitors were eating their lunch, the leadership decided the best use of $6 billion was to prop up the stock price instead of actually fixing the business. And you can see exactly what happened right here on this chart. The company's revenue just went into an absolute freefall. I mean, from $44 billion in 2010, their sales were literally cut in half in just 7 years. All that financial wizardry did absolutely nothing to stop the bleeding where it actually mattered, in the stores. So you have to be asking, why?
