Chapter 11 or Chapter 13? Anybody know?
I'll guarantee it won't be a 13.
Even if they are planning a liquidation, it is likely to be an 11. Technically they could file a 7, but there's no reason to.
In fact, I'll even further out on a limb. They are probably having trouble getting suppliers to provide inventory for the Christmas shopping season. An 11 would give them an opportunity to get post petition financing that would get them to January.
Now, watch them file a 7 just to make me look bad.
Chapter 13 is not available to a debtor that is a non-individual. Corporations and other business entities face a choice among chapters 7, 11, or 15 (transnational insolvency.)
Normally you don't see the hiring of expensive advisors if the object is to go directly into liquidation.
On the other hand, look at retailers like Sports Authority. They entered Chapter 11, believing that there were buyers out there, found none and converted to Chapter 7 and packed it in. The retail environment is so bad that management and its advisors missed the boat, even within bankruptcy.
Sears rates as the worlds slowest motion train wreck in my conscious lifetime. I worked in retailing 35 years ago and even then it waa hard to understand what was going on with Sears.