Eddie Lampert just threw another interception — and wrote a weird blog post about it afterwards.
Sears Holdings reported a $159 million quarterly loss on Thursday as store closings and asset sales continued to shrink revenue at the aging owner of the Sears and Kmart chains.
In a blog post on the Sears Web site that puzzled some investors, Lampert, the company’s billionaire chairman, appeared to compare second-guessing of his stewardship of the retailer to second-guessing of the Seattle Seahawks’ final offensive play of the Super Bowl.
In the game, the Seahawks, two yards from the end zone and a go-ahead touchdown in the waning seconds — with its running game in top form — chose to throw a pass.
It was intercepted and they lost the game. Pete Carroll, the coach who called the pass, was roundly criticized for the call.
“The ‘Super Bowl’ for second-guessing was clearly, undeniably, this year’s actual Super Bowl,” Lampert wrote in a peevish letter to shareholders.
“Millions of words and billions of pixels were electrified about how plays were called, but even that didn’t drown out the second-guessing about how people saw the plays,” Lampert wrote.
In drawing the lengthy analogy, Lampert — who has been roundly criticized for failing to invest ain and update Sears and Kmart stores — neglected to mention a crucial detail: the Seahawks lost.
Sears shares dropped 4.9 percent to $36.05 in regular trading Thursday.
In 2008, Lampert had drawn jeers when he compared himself to Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who had upset the New England Patriots to win Super Bowl XLII.
“That’s just insulting to Giants fans,” a Deutsche Bank analyst said at the time.
Elsewhere Thursday, Lampert got defensive about his strategy to exit retail locations while focusing more resources on Internet operations, which account for only a small fraction of Sears’ business.
“Time and again, people have proclaimed our company all but dead,” Lampert scoffed.
He added that, were it not for his efforts to “creatively disrupt” the company, “Sears and Kmart would probably be no more than a treasured American memory.”
Sears said it expects to raise $2 billion in proceeds in May or June by selling up to 300 of its best stores into a real-estate investment trust and then leasing them back.
In his letter, Lampert signaled that Sears will continue to sublease more space at those locations to other retailers, which thus far have included Whole Foods, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Primark.
Sears in particular is poised to sublet its electronics business to one or more other brands, he noted.