[Zeke]

There seems to be some debate on who bought whom.

from the Chicago Tribune:
The merger swaps Kmart shares one-for-one with the new Sears Holdings shares, while Sears stockholders will get either $50 a share or one share of the new company for every two Sears shares they now hold.

from USA Today
NEW YORK — Just 18 months after emerging from bankruptcy protection with many analysts giving it up for dead, Kmart (KMRT) agreed Wednesday to pay $11 billion for Sears Roebuck (S), creating a 3,500-store behemoth.

If shareholders and antitrust regulators approve the deal, then Sears Holdings, as the combined company will be named, will become the country's No. 3 retailer after Wal-Mart (WMT) and Home Depot (HD) with $55 billion in revenue. Sears currently is No. 5 and Kmart is No. 8

from Forbes.com
The two retailers announced Wednesday that they will combine in an $11 billion deal. The new company, to be called Sears Holdings, will be based in Sears' (nyse: S - news - people ) hometown of Hoffman Estates, Ill. Kmart (nasdaq: KMRT - news - people ) will continue to operate under its own name and will retain its offices in Troy, Mich. The combined operation will have $55 billion in annual revenue, 2,350 full-line and off-mall stores, and 1,100 specialty retail stores. The merger follows a deal by Kmart to sell 50 stores to Sears for $575 million; Kmart also cashed out 18 stores to Home Depot (nyse: HD - news - people ) earlier this year.

I'm not trying to hijack my own thread, I just found it interesting that it's enough of a complicated deal that it is apparently not understood well.

Back to what effect these types of mergers and acquisitions might have on what goods we will have available in the future.