if he "goes public" my take is that means an ipo. going public after running transform holdco (or whatever name it becomes) for a while and doing those things that public investors wouldn't endorse.
eddie made a commitment in the apa to keep those employees employed through 2020. however, that might also be some word trickery. usually, retail operations have a fiscal year ending 1/31 which i think was also the end of the fiscal year for sears holdings.
so, if transform holdco were to have a fiscal year ending january 31, 2020, that would mean eddie's commitment to those employees might be for not much longer than 1 year from now.
if his plan is to significantly downsize stores, how does anyone think he will continue to employ 45,000? the current base of employees associated with the stores will gradually be whittled down as he downsizes his retail footprint. that can't/won't be done in a year. but if you were to believe his plan, then downsizing with a resultant reduction in number of people employed seems to be the writing on the wall.
how soon he needs money to continue rolling out his plan will be the factor determining when he goes public.
