The Sears Tower, with its 442 m height, was the tallest building in the world when it was completed in 1973, partly in competition with the World Trade Center in New York. It was financed by Sears, Roebuck & Co., the largest retailing company in the US at the time, which wanted to have a central administrative headquarters. Sears went into a business decline in the 1970s, and had to sell the tower in 1993.