Sears Same Store Sales Plummeted 13% in November and December

Eddie Lampert’s hedge fund company owns more than 50% of the shares and is the company’s largest creditor, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Struggling retailer Sears Holdings Corp. has bought itself some breathing room through maneuvers that include the sale of its Craftsman brand for $900 million and the closure of 150 additional stores as it grapples with a prolonged sales slump and mounting losses.

The company has suffered through several weak quarters and warned Thursday that same-store sales fell as much as 13% in November and December. Over the past five years it has booked $8.2 billion in cumulative losses.

Its shares, which traded above $142 in April 2007 after adjusting for subsequent spinoffs, fell to a low of $8 last week.

Sears also said it would continue to shrink by closing 108 Kmart and 42 Sears stores, including the original Kmart location that opened in Garden City, Mich., in 1962. Over the past decade, the company has closed, sold or spun off more than 2,000 stores.

Mr. Lampert, a hedge-fund manager, took control of Kmart out of a bankruptcy proceeding and merged it with Sears, Roebuck & Co. in 2005.

His firm owns more than 50% of the company’s shares and is a large creditor.