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In late November 2004, the retail industry was shocked back to life by Kmart Corporation''s announcement that it would purchase Sears, Roebuck & Co for an estimated $11.5 billion. The combination of the two struggling retailing giants would catapult the new combined company into the number three spot within the highly competitive industry. The transaction was the dream of the forty-two year old Edward Lampert, a talented portfolio manager of his ESL Investments, Inc hedge fund. The fund, at the time of the announcement, owned 43 million shares of Kmart and 31 million shares of Sears and would likely control approximately 40% of the new company. But not all the shareholders in Kmart were convinced of the success of the merger. How would Sears and Kmart integrate, identify their customers, and succeed where both had struggled for so many years? Would the combination of the two under performing giants improve the financial results or just create a much larger problem?