Intellectual Property - As a Bond
Copyright Jack Mixner. 714 449 1040. www.mixnerstrategy.com
I have a series of Craftsman tool sets in the garage, remnants of the old days when I had to maintain my Triumph Spitfire on a weekly basis. I used to have a Diehard battery in the Spitfire, mainly because it was one of the first to come with a long-term warranty. Finally, the washer/dryer sitting there in the garage came from Kenmore. All were trusted Sears brands.
As we all know, K-Mart and Sears have merged as a result of bankruptcies into a new firm, Sears Holdings Corp.
Most interesting new fact about Sears? They've taken all those old classic brands and sold them off to the insurance branch of the company (Berner, 60). If the retail side goes bankrupt again, the brands will stay with Sears. The valuation on the deal? A cool $1.8 billion. They are held in security form, that could be sold for capital to do something else. The current buzz is that Sears will use the value in the securities to buy Gap Inc.
We all know that protecting intellectual property makes sense, especially for tech firms. This points to the possibility that there may be other important reasons to protect IP, especially when it can increase your company's valuation.
Reference
Berner, Robert. The New Alchemy At Sears. BusinessWeek. 16 April 2007. 58. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_16/b4030071.htm?chan=search