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Sears Declares Bankruptcy

Oct 15, 2018 | 12:15 PM

Sears, the once-dominant retail chain that changed how Americans shopped and lived, has filed for bankruptcy.
The 132-year-old company has been struggling for several years and is drowning in debt. The final straw was a $134 million debt payment due today that it could not afford.
Sears Holdings is the parent company, which owns Sears and Kmart,.
The filing in federal bankruptcy court in New York came just after midnight . The company issued a statement saying it intends to stay in business, keeping stores which are profitable open, along with the Sears and Kmart online shopping sites. But it said it looking for a buyer for a large number of its remaining stores and that it will close at least an additional 142 stores near the end of this year, in additional to the 46 store closing already planned for next month.
Eddie Lampert, the company’s chairman and largest shareholder who engineered the merger of Sears and Kmart in 2005, gave up the title of CEO as part of the filing. The company will now be run by three of the company’s top executives.

 

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