Adam Hartung was quoted in the Chicago Tribune today regarding the announcement of the Sears and K-Mart merger.  Here’s what Adam had to say:

Kmart Corp.’s cheeky proposal to
acquire Sears, Roebuck and Co. for $11 billion may be wowing Wall
Street, but it doesn’t do anything to fix the serious problems
afflicting two of the country’s largest retailers, retail and business
strategy experts say.

 

Kmart’s retail business is shrinking at an alarming double-digit
rate. Sears is only slightly better off, closing in on its fourth
straight year of sales declines. Neither company has articulated a
strategy for attracting shoppers in a retail world increasingly
dominated by discount juggernauts Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp.

 


"If I put Kmart and Sears together, I’m putting together two broken
business models," said Adam Hartung, managing partner in Spark
Partners, a business strategy firm in Long Grove. "You put a bad heart
and a bad liver together, and you don’t get a healthy body."

You can go to the Chicago Trib site to read the entire article: "Will Bigger Be Better: Retail experts not sold on the wisdom of combining 2 ‘broken’ companies".