Sears bought mail-order retailer Lands' End for $1.9 million in cash in 2002, in a bid to tap into its 30 million-strong customer base.
But as sales slid at Sears over the following decade, Lands' End was spun off as a separate publicly traded company in 2014. ESL Investments got 15.4 million shares, or nearly half of the company, at no additional cost.
According to The New York Times, ESL and its affiliates subsequently bought six million more shares as its stock price climbed. They now own 67.1% of the company, according to company financials from April 2018. Neither Lands' End nor ESL Investments responded to Business Insider's request for comment.
Lands' End continues to sell at Sears stores and via the Lands' End website, catalog, and growing store fleet.