Dive Brief:

• Tommy Tisch, one of the scions of the philanthropist Tisch family of New York and a longtime Sears board member, last week bought 475,000 shares of the retailer for $16 million.

• The move, which was quickly profitable for Tisch, at least on paper, is seen as a vote of confidence for the retailer’s chairman, Eddie Lampert.

• Lampert has been working to turn around the struggling retailer, which continues to experience falling sales, by cutting costs and improving its online business.

Dive Insight:

Lampert’s approach to boosting Sears is not sitting well with some people. His cost-cutting measures, many say, have led to the dreary, neglected feeling of many physical stores — and Sears has a lot of physical stores. And while he says e-commerce will be a key factor in Sears’ recovery, web sales are still only 3% of total sales. It’s not clear whether this move by Tisch is meant to support a brother-in-arms, net a personal profit, or help the retailer in the long run. For now, Sears shares are up, and we’ll see if it can build on that and turn itself around.