Eddie Lampert offers to save Sears or salvage pieces in a partial liquidation
Even Sears' biggest advocate, chairman Eddie Lampert knows his $4.4 billion bid for Sears may not be enough to keep the retailer alive.
Lampert has offered two options to try to keep the company afloat, a $4.4 billion plan that would save 425 locations and a less-ambitious proposal that would keep just 250 of the little under 700 hundred it had when it filed for bankruptcy in October. The primary bid, made through an affiliate of his hedge fund ESL investments, Transform Holdco, would also save all of Sears' business units, according to an outline of the plan filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. Lampert's smaller bid would buy a few other pieces of Sears. The rest of the company would likely be liquidated.
Lampert is competing against a number of liquidators and other investors who want to buy Sears piecemeal — a smaller number of stores or one or two business units, like its home services division. All bidders will compete in an auction that's scheduled for January 14.
His offer for 425 stores is the only one that would keep the company and its brands alive in their entirety, according to people familiar with the matter. His bid for 250 stores could keep at least part of Sears running, but those stores would face steep odds in competing with retail titans like Walmart, which has more than 5,000 locations in the U.S. alone.
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