I don't follow it either. Kmart just underwent a major restructuring last
year (or so). I think they declared bankruptcy and issued new stock. In
the meantime, they have been struggling with cash flow and have been selling
off a lot of their buildings and properties to keep the company afloat. I
don't see why Sears would want to hitch it's wagon to Kmart.

Frank

KMart bought Sears. There was no "merger" to it. The guy that bought KMart out
of bankruptcy has made a fortune on the deal. KMart was and still is real
estate rich, Sears was and still is real estate rich. In KMart's case that real
estate was not liquid enough to allow it to have an adequate cash flow so it
was forced into bankruptcy due to a negitive short term liqiudity situation
(all the while sitting on vast amounts of highly valuable heavily depreciated
real estate). The new owner has just begun to cash in on that real estate but
had still amassed enough cash to take over Sears. Expect to see a lot of Sears
real estate on the market (remember all the little Sears stores and Sears
Hardware stores not to mention the NTBs and other Sears owned non-Sears named
stores, many of which have closed in the last few years - lots of real estate).
Just because WE think of KMart and Sears as retail store operations, the folks
who buy bankrupt companies or troubled companies don't always do so for the
continuing operations. Sometimes the parts are worth far more than the whole.

Dave Hall