Buyback doesn't address the bigger issue at Sears.(Opinion)(Sears, Roebuck and Co.)(credit card business to Citigroup Inc.)

Crain's Chicago Business, October, 2003

Sears, Roebuck and Co. has answered the question of what it will do with $3 billion in proceeds from the sale of its credit card business. It will once again buy back stock, which is bound to please investors. But CEO Alan Lacy has yet to answer the bigger question: How is he going to make a shrinking enterprise start reaping benefits for those same investors? The Sears board last week approved using some proceeds from the sale of credit operations to Citigroup Inc.

to repurchase common shares, the company's fourth stock repurchase in less than three years. One has to question the timing, since shares are trading at a 52-week high of $50. But, more important, the stock buyback is only the latest in a series of short-term tactical moves that seem aimed more...

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