Eddie Lampert, Sears’ largest creditor and shareholder, won a last minute bid to buy the company out of bankruptcy for $5.3 billion. This prevented the complete liquidation of the stores, and will keep about 400 Sears open.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
With more than $7 billion in assets when it filed for chapter 11, Sears is one of the biggest in a string of recent U.S. retail bankruptcies. The company, which also runs the Kmart chain, has already closed about 200 of the roughly 700 stores it had when it filed for protection.
The agreement, reached in early-morning hours Wednesday, capped a tense day of negotiations. By 11 p.m. Mr. Lampert’s offer appeared dead, the people said.
The two sides, huddling in neighboring conference rooms at the New York law office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, continued talking until about 2 a.m., when Mr. Lampert raised his offer by $150 million, cinching the deal, the people said.
One of the issues complicating the negotiations is that Sears continues to burn through cash at a rapid rate, one of the people said.
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