While its future is now in doubt as it goes through bankruptcy, it did not help that Sears spent $6 billion buying back its own shares since 2005 in a futile effort to help support its stock price, according to a CNN Business commentary. The stock plunged more than 99 percent in value, from a high of $143.91 in 2007 to less than $1 a share a couple of weeks before its bankruptcy filing. "If they had put $6 billion into upgrading stores and website development, they could be in a very different position right now," said William Lazonick, a retired University of Massachusetts economics professor and an expert in share repurchases. "They could be in a much better position to compete in the changing world of retail." Sears could have used the money to reduce its debt burden and provide the working capital needed to keep the company out of bankruptcy, according to the commentary. The company had more than $5 billion debt on the books at the time of the bankruptcy filing. Ahead of the filing, Sears chairman and primary shareholder Eddie Lampert had proposed a plan to sell assets and renegotiate debt down to $1.2 billion, which he argued was all Sears could afford.
