Posted on 12/27/2018 2:49:09 PM PST by NRx
Sears, the 125-year-old icon, has 24 hours to survive.
The employer of more than 68,000 filed for bankruptcy in October. Its last shot at survival is a $4.6 billion proposal put forward by its chairman, Eddie Lampert, to buy the company out of bankruptcy through his hedge fund, ESL Investments. ESL is the only party offering to buy Sears as a whole, people familiar with the situation tell CNBC. Without that bid or another like it, liquidators will break the company up into pieces.
But as Lampert stares down a deadline of Dec. 28 to submit his offer, he is quickly running out of time. As of Thursday afternoon, Lampert had neither submitted his bid, nor rounded up financing, the people familiar said. Should Lampert submit a bid, Sears' advisors would have until Jan. 4 to decide whether he is a "qualified bidder." Only then, could ESL take part in an auction against liquidation bids on Jan. 14.
It is possible Lampert, Sears' largest investor, secures financing in time to meet the deadline, these people said. The hedge fund manager turned retailer has managed last-minute feats before. Due to requirements by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Lampert will be required to make his bid public. That stipulation that could sway him to prolong the filing until its exact deadline of 4:00 p.m. ET Friday.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Sears has been an anachronism for decades.
Being around for over a hundred years used to an asset. Now it’s a liability.
* used to be an asset *
I was once a part-time employee of sears in my younger years during college. It was truly run like a family affair.
Talk about mismanagement, they could have and should have been the Amazon of today.
The irony is that they basically invented Amazon.
They should have copied Amazon and Wal-Mart.
Yep.
Thanks for posting. My dad (RIP) retired from Sears in 1972. Interesting.
I remember looking at guns in the Sear’s catalog. I still have 2 boxes of Ted Williams 30-30, headstamped “SEARS”.
Sears never made the jump from retail to internet sales in support of brick and mortar due to entrenched management.
They already had the catalogue infrastructure to make it work, but they simply could not adapt.
My dad made a career of printing newspaper inserts for Sears. My neighbor was a service manager with about 150 employees in north east PA.
So many made a good living with Sears. A great run.
Sears Roebuck, the World’s Largest Store (and the one store that developed the mail-order marketplace that Amazon is getting rich on today)
the World’s Largest Store has been, imho, suffering from DBM for several years already
DBM — death by management....
and it is fascinating) but predicted a long time ago already) that its top manager Eddie L. would wind up taking all or most the assets, one way or another...
(lots of real estate, for starters....and more...)
this is what DBM usually involves, after all...
Sears was the Amazon of 1900 America
Sears is or was my mom and dads store. They never reinvented themselves.
Sears had a great customer service, and great products, but today it has workers who do not care, some hardly speak English and many of the guys have baggy pants which need pulling up. Women with tattoos on their arms, backs,and necks.
Very sad
The literally WERE the Amazon of their day... long before the internet or box stores.. Sears sold everything and I do mean everything mail order.
Yep, you used to be able to order anything from baby chicks to houses from Sears.
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