Sears is an odd example because Eddie Lambert didn't want to treat it as private equity investment and he wanted to take operations in his own hands. He thought he was the next Warren Buffett, but he wasn't, so Sears hemorrhaged money and had to sell off their own parts. Nobody besides Lambert's own hedge fund thought it was a good idea to buy mall real estate, which is how it all ended up there. This didn't work out for the hedge fund either, and together with the Sears bankruptcy is why his net worth nearly dropped in half while all his billionaire buddies were enjoying the longest bull market in history.