"Covers all bills incurred since Chapter 11, preserves 50,000 jobs AND provides more cash than shut-down."
.. Not terms put into his bid. Unless put in writing he would not even be obligated to preserve any jobs in his new; private; company. [IMO]
Does NOT cover all bills incurred since Chapter 11. Probably includes "some" utility bills such as ELECTRIC that Sears is already obligated to pay under Chapter 11 .. EXCEPT .. when it is administratively insolvent ... AND only utility bills incurred post BK. Technically all utility and ALL creditor bills are owed by a company EVEN in bankruptcy. However; there are only x$ to pay AND ONLY the Corporation / DIP is expected to pay.. until x$ is depleted. [Can't pay more than you have]. Pre-Bankruptcy non secured creditors INCLUDING utilities; are paid ONLY after secured creditors.
To keep the lights on the utility companies the creditor asks a judge to stipulate that the utility be dis-allowed to cut-off service. A judge typically; as was in this case; provides such a ruling with a condition that the debtor pays for all POST BANKRUPTCY utility costs; and should the debtor fail to honor this obligation may have utilities cut-off upon subsequent hearings. It is possible a utility company be owed $1 million pre bankruptcy which never gets paid off at all; and $10 thousand post bankruptcy for which the debtor is obligated to pay.
If a company under bankruptcy becomes administratively insolvent it may not be able to pay EVEN post bankruptcy fees incurred; which in this example would include both the $10 thousand for electric POST-bankruptcy; and the $1 million PRE-BANKRUPTCY claim which would also remain unpaid. Most likely ESL has included in his bid funds that would pay the POST bankruptcy electric and some other POST bankruptcy fees; but definitely not sufficient funds to pay ALL POST bankruptcy vendor fees; and most likely NO pre-bankruptcy unsecured creditor claims at all.