Sears is planning to close stores and lay off workers.

"As we have previously communicated, adjusting our physical footprint to focus on our best performing locations is a core component of our transformation," a spokesperson told Business Insider.

The company will disclose which stores it is closing in its next earnings report later this year.

Seeking Alpha reported that Sears would be closing more than 100 stores and laying off 5,500 workers, but the company denies that these numbers are accurate.

Shares rose slightly higher on the news.

"While this has resulted in store closures where appropriate – decisions that we do not take lightly – we continue to have a substantial nationwide footprint with a presence in many of the top malls in the country," the company said.

A Sears spokesman noted that it had 200,000 workers between its namesake and Kmart brands.

The department store has been bleeding cash, posting its ninth straight quarterly loss in August.

Sears CEO Eddie Lampert said that the company would close even more stores and cut costs in the coming months to combat the "unacceptable" losses.

Earlier this year, former Sears executive Steven Dennis wrote that he believed a turnaround was impossible.

"The uncomfortable and sad reality is this: Sears has zero chance of transforming itself into a viable retail entity," Dennis said.

Sears failed to respond to competitors like Wal-Mart, TJ Maxx, and JCPenney, according to the book The New Rules Of Retail co-authored by Robin Lewis and Michael Dart.

Between 1998 and 2010, the number of competitors within a 15-minute drive from any Sears grew from 1,400 to 4,300 stores, according to Lewis.

Sears could have fended off competitors by altering its strategy. Instead, the company became complacent, leading to a massive loss of market share.

Today, the department store "just doesn’t have the same resonance, it doesn’t have the same level of importance to people as it had 30 years ago," Matt McGinley, managing director at International Strategy & Investment Group, told Bloomberg News.