I'm not even kidding
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A larger retail company needs to buy them out.
lol
♪ Bankruptcy is just the next transformation ♪
@kpw in his first $4.6B bid, $1.8B of that bid he was claiming was unredeemed gift cards and SYW member points as liabilities. He ponied up zero cash in his initial bid.
Actually I'm pretty sure the bid includes points.
That's actually a great example of how uncompetitive Sears has become. Amazon is currently generating $1.8M in revenue per employee. Sears? $79,000.
FYI The 50000 employees number is not entirely accurate. Stores have been hiring like crazy lately and giving one or two part time shifts to each per week. They didn't need the workers, but it makes liquidation look more devastating.
Sears Chairman Edward Lampert moved Friday to throw a lifeline to the bankrupt retailer even as the company announced plans to close 80 more stores, including two in Illinois.
Lampert’s hedge fund said in a statement that it pulled together financing to submit a $4.4 billion bid for the retailer on Friday, the deadline for parties interested in acquiring Sears’ assets to submit bids. The statement was released by Transform Holdco LLC, an affiliate of the hedge fund ESL Investments.
The bid, according to Transform Holdco, includes a $1.3 billion financing commitment from three leading financial institutions.
Lampert’s hedge fund indicated earlier in the month that it would bid on the Hoffman Estates-based retailer’s remaining assets, including about 425 Sears and Kmart stores.
That proposal would keep Sears in business and preserve “tens of thousands of jobs,” Lampert’s hedge fund said in a letter to Sears’ investment banker in early December.
Sears and its restructuring adviser could not immediately be reached for comment after the bid deadline passed. Sears and its restructuring adviser declined to comment earlier Friday
It’s unusual to see the bid from ESL come down to the wire, since Lampert “knows the business better than anyone,” said Craig Barbarosh, a partner at law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman in California who is not involved with the Sears case.
“It suggests lenders are … skittish about whether it really is viable as a going concern,” he said.
Even though ESL submitted a bid with the intent of keeping the retailer in operation, it doesn’t guarantee Sears will escape liquidation.
Sears told the bankruptcy court it has seen interest from multiple parties, including some who would liquidate the company, according to a CNN report.
The court will choose the bid that recovers as much of the money Sears owes its lenders and vendors as possible, whether that means shutting the business down immediately or giving Sears more runway to restructure, Barbarosh said.
If it’s a close call, judges tend to lean to bids that would keep the business going because that preserves jobs, said Barbarosh. ESL said it expected to employ 50,000 at the 500 stores it proposed acquiring, out of 68,000 employees Sears said it had at the time of its bankruptcy filing.
A bid that would keep Sears in business also gives lenders who aren’t first in line to be repaid a shot at retrieving a larger portion of what they’re owed.
“But if lenders can make an argument that there will be greater returns (from shutting down quickly), I would not be surprised if they liquidate,” Barbarosh said.
Sears has already announced plans to shutter 182 stores after seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October. On Friday, it announced another round of 80 stores, including Sears stores in Fairview Heights and Cherry Valley.
The stores will close in March and liquidation sales are expected to begin in two weeks, Sears said Friday.