Sears, an American retail staple since 1886, has been struggling in recent years, closing stores, selling off assets and borrowing money. Gordon Weil, author of “Sears, Roebuck, USA,” looks back on the history of the retailer. Photo: GettySears Chairman Eddie Lampert’s hedge fund, ESL Investments Inc., is interested in scooping up Sears Holdings Corp.’s real estate for $1.8 billion if its offer to buy the company out of bankruptcy as a going concern fails, Sears disclosed in a filing on Wednesday. The billionaire’s hedge fund, which had controlled Sears, last week made a $4.4 billion bid to carve out a chunk of Sears stores and keep them open. At the same time two teams of liquidation firms submitted competing bids to liquidate all of Sears and sell off the...

Source: Wall Street Journal January 02, 2019 18:00 UTC