NEW YORK (AP) — Sears will live on— at least for now.
The company’s chairman and largest shareholder, Eddie Lampert, won a bankruptcy auction for Sears, averting liquidation of the iconic chain, according to a source familiar with the negotiations. The person agreed to speak on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the negotiation publicly.
Lampert, who steered the company into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October, is aiming to keep open roughly 400 stores and preserve tens of thousands of jobs.
NOTE: A company spokesperson declined to comment if Sears at the Old Hickory Mall would remain open.
The Jackson store at 2021 North Highland Avenue, is one of 80 stores nationwide the parent company announced it would close, December 18, 2018.
Once the world’s largest retailer, this latest round of closings will leave the company with about 400 stores – or an average of eight per state.
Five years ago, Sears had 2,073 stores.
But how long Sears can survive under the 56-year-old billionaire, who has tried and failed to turn around the company many times before, remains an open question. Cutthroat competitors like Amazon, Target and Walmart also pose challenges that the struggling retailer has so far been unable to overcome.
“While there’s no doubt that a shrunken Sears will be more viable than the larger entity, which struggled to turn a profit, we remain extremely pessimistic about the chain’s future,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail. “In our view, Sears exits this process with almost as many problems as it had when it entered bankruptcy protection. In essence, its hand has not changed, and the cards it holds are not winning ones.”
The operator of Sears and Kmart had 687 stores and 68,000 workers at the time of its bankruptcy filing. At its peak in 2012, its stores numbered 4,000.
Lampert, the only one to put out a bid for the whole company, had sweetened his offer to more than $5 billion over the last few days through an affiliate of his hedge fund ESL after his original bid had been rejected by the Sears board. That included assuming certain liabilities like covering bills to vendors of up to $166 million. Details of the final terms couldn’t be learned.
The plan must be approved at a hearing on February 1 by a bankruptcy judge in White Plains, New York.
(PHOTO: Sears, Old Hickory Mall)
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