JUST SAY "NO" TO EMBEDDED REAL ESTATE VALUE AT SEARS

Implications: William Ackman, the activist investor who previously blocked Mr.  Lampert from taking over Sears Canada, has just bought 5 million shares of Sears stock.  He justifies his purchase by saying "the stock is beaten up and there is a lot of embedded value in the real estate". 

Analysis:

As readers of my previous analysis of department store real estate already know, after 40 years of a highly sucessful career in retail real estate and particularly department store real estate, I am firmly convinced that ONLY ONE IN ONE HUNDRED DEPARTMENT STORE LOCATIONS ARE WORTH AS MUCH AS THEIR BOOK VALUE WOULD INDICATE!

I believe that one of the main reasons that so many of the Hedge Funds have lost interst in SHLD is because they have come to realize that the notion of "embedded value" is a myth.