Mike Ashley loves a distressed asset which he goes bottom fishing for i.e. paying very low price when it is at its weakest, but a buisiness can still can be brought back to healthy life.
Remember he bought Newcastle when the club was struggling a bit and made a very good profit on his investment. Glasgow Rangers he was desperate to buy on the cheap when they were relegated for financial cheating. I think he managed to get a minority stake. When House of Fraser was about to go under he bought them for very little and then asked some of the landlords to let him have stores rent free. He was after Debenhams when they were struggling. Debenhams struggled when a private equity consortium bought it and then sold most of the shares and over time put debts on the company. They also expanded their physical shop presence when internet shopping was taking off. When the shares began to dip around 2013 Ashley started buying. Wisely he did not go for BHS, because he knew Phil Green and family had taken £1.2 billion out of the business, leaving it with large debts, pension deficits and run down stores. PG did not encourage BHS to develop a significant online presence.