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Sears Hometown profits, sales fall in Q1
Hoffman Estates, Ill. – Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores Inc. reported falling profits and sales in the first quarter of fiscal 2015. Lower online commissions from Sears Holdings, lower initial franchise revenues, and lower delivery income helped reduce net income to $2.15 million from $3.68 million.
Net sales in the first quarter of 2015 decreased 1% to $582.8 million from $589.9 million. This decrease was driven primarily by a 1.2% decrease in same-store sales.
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What to Do When Activists Attack
Today, CEOs and corporate board members of retail chains must run simply to stand still. Executives of publicly traded retailers face intensive pressure from activist investors to quickly and decisively increase shareholder value. Activists are known to secretly accumulate a significant stake in a company and without notice blind side the CEO with risky restructuring plans, force firms into unwanted mergers to removing board members and CEOs that disagree with their speculative strategy.

