I went to a Sears for the first time in 3 or 4 years a few months ago and they were selling clothing cheap, cheap, cheap. It sort of felt like one was standing in a T.J. Maxx or Ross store in terms of the pricing of the goods, but they were the first run clothes. And then there were discounts off the discounted prices, with further discounts for store cardholders. It didn't seem possible they could have been profitable paying rent, employees & cost of goods sold.
I think it would be easier for Apple to buy a different auto manufacturer than Tesla with more scale & a far lower price.
Volvo
had a great turn around over the past 8 years.
“It’s not that they came with a bag of money; actually the opposite. The entire turnaround of Volvo has been financed by Volvo’s cash flow. They left us alone and had the patience as an investor not to take our money but to reinvest it in a new product portfolio. We were close to being dead in 2010. And here we are.” ... in March 2010, Geely parent Zhejiang Geely Holding bought Volvo for $1.8 billion in cash and debt—about a quarter of what Ford had paid.[/qote]
I think eventually Google will realize third party tie ins won't cut it against Amazon & as Walmart eventually pulls back from Google that will end up leading to Google needing to acquire a company like Target to stay competitive against Amazon & stop losing ecommerce search share to Amazon.
