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Transform Holdco, the company formed in January to buy the remaining assets of bankrupt retailer Sears Holdings Corp., disclosed late Thursday a list of the next Sears and Kmart stores to close by the end of February. After the closures, the company SHLDQ, -1.71% will operate 182 stores and “will continue to evaluate our Sears and Kmart footprint,” it said in a statement.

Sears created the DieHard brand way back in 1967. NEW YORK — Sears has sold the DieHard car battery brand as the struggling retailer continues to shed assets to raise cash. The company, created by Sears in 1967, was acquired by Advance Auto Parts for $200 million, the companies said Monday. Sears will still be able to sell DieHard goods in its stores. And it will still be able to create products for the brand as long as they are not auto-related, like the DieHard boots it currently sells. Advance Auto Parts said it will sell DieHard auto batteries in...

Tourists visiting the Willis Tower SkyDeck in Chicago were left horrified when the protective layer of the attraction’s glass ledge cracked. The terrifying incident happened Monday on the Tower’s 103rd floor, which is the location of the deck that gives visitors a panoramic view of not only Chicago but also Lake Michigan and parts of Indiana. Visitors are encouraged to stand on the deck’s ledge so that when they look down they can see the city below them.

Government accountability is an idea that draws bipartisan support: calls for more transparency and oversight of politicians and bureaucracies go over well with voters. But what about oversight of the people who put them in office? Democracies give power to the people — does anyone hold the people responsible for this power? Not really, and that has long been a problem. Since its beginning in ancient Greece, democracy has faced a crisis of legitimacy when the people have not been held accountable for their exercise of sovereignty, allowing elites to dismiss democracy as mob rule. Today, defending our democracy begins...

NEW YORK – Sears Holdings Corp sued longtime former chairman Eddie Lampert, his hedge fund ESL Investments and others like Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, claiming they illegally siphoned billions of dollars of assets from the retailer before it went bankrupt. The lawsuit, made public on Thursday, was filed by the restructuring team winding down Sears’ bankruptcy estate and suing on behalf of creditors, many of whom blame Lampert for the retailer’s downfall. It followed the billionaire’s $5.2 billion purchase in February of most Sears assets, including the DieHard and Kenmore brands, after a bankruptcy auction. The complaint seeks the repayment...

Key Points Sears will open three “Sears Home & Life” stores in May, in Anchorage, Alaska; Lafayette, Louisiana; and Overland Park, Kansas. That’s after the department store chain has shut hundreds of Sears and Kmart locations over the years and filed for bankruptcy protection in October. ================================================================ Sears is opening stores again. The embattled department store chain, which has shut hundreds of Sears and Kmart locations over the years and recently got another shot at life after filing for bankruptcy protection in October, still sees a chance to be a shopping destination for hard-line goods like appliances, tools and mattresses....

JukeboxfunPublished on Oct 10, 2017 "Sears Wishbook catalog from the 1960's. Toys for girls and boys! Merry Christmas. This video was made using information and photos freely found on the internet." (video is 3:31 mins) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqCk1xB0jS0

Sears Holdings reached a roughly $5 billion deal with its chairman, Eddie Lampert, early Wednesday to keep the company, and about 400 stores, in operations, according to people familiar with the situation. The deal came after days of negotiations at the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Lampert has been trying to buy Sears out of bankruptcy through an affiliate of his hedge fund ESL Investments. The owner of Kmart and Sears had filed for bankruptcy in October, and Lampert's bid was the only one that would have kept it alive. The offer had strong bargaining tools: It could save...

Eddie Lampert not only ran the company; he was also its largest creditor and the guy who sold major Sears assets to … Eddie Lampert.

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...

Walmart’s Doug McMillon keeps a list of the top 10 retailers over the decades to remind him you have to innovate and adapt constantly. Becky Quick | CNBC ________________________________________________________________ Walmart CEO Doug McMillon keeps a photo on his phone that lists the top 10 retailers in the U.S. over the past few decades to remind him how so many companies come and go. Walmart wants to keep its No. 1 spot, which it’s held since the 1990s when it overtook Sears. “After learning from so many people ... we know that retailers come and go,” McMillon told CNBC’s Becky Quick...

1983. Mannequins are shown as Sears unveils its "Store of the Future."

The long-predicted Sears bankruptcy is finally here. On Monday, Sears Holdings announced it is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in an attempt to restructure the company and save the troubled retailer from oblivion. Shoppers can expect more Sears store closures, as well as liquidation sales, in brick-and-mortar locations around the country: Sears, which owns its flagship brand and Kmart, says it will be closing an additional 142 stores by the end of the year. Which Sears Stores Are Closing?

Sears, RIP: Bowing to the inevitable, Sears' owners on Monday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Yes, it's a sad day for the 126-year-old company. But it's not a tragic story, for it underscores the underlying vibrancy, innovation and creativity of American capitalism. Monday's filing came as Sears faced a deadline for payment of $134 million on its debt. It didn't have the money, so it filed for protection from its creditors. Eddie Lampert — the largest shareholder in the company, with nearly half its shares — stepped down as CEO. By the end of this year, Sears will be a...

Sears was once the nation's largest retailer and its largest employer. In its heyday, it was both the Walmart and Amazon of its time. Formed in 1886 by railroad station agent Richard Sears, the company started as a watch business in North Redwood, Minnesota. Sears moved to Chicago in 1887, and he hired watchmaker Alvah Roebuck as his partner. The first Sears Roebuck catalog, which sold watches and jewelry, was printed in 1896. The Sears catalog was the way many Americans first started to buy mass-produced goods. That was an enormous shift for people who lived on farms and in...

Political parties aligned with the German government of Chancellor Angela Merkel lost over 21 percent of the popular vote in yesterday's Bavarian state election. The Christian Social Union lost its majority and the Social Democratic Party lost half its support from the last election in 2014..... The Speaker of Sweden's Parliament, the Riksdag, will now give the task of forming a government to another party leader. Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson abandoned his effort to form a new government.... A very disturbing lead story appeared on the BBC website overnight. A story detailing the notion of chemical attacks in Syria...

Sears Holdings filed for bankruptcy protection early Monday after years of staying afloat through financial maneuvering and relying on billions of CEO Eddie Lampert's own money. The company also announced that Lampert will be stepping down as CEO, effective immediately, although he remains its chairman. The 125-year-old retailer, once the nation's largest, said Monday it was appointing Mohsin Meghji, managing partner of M-III Partners, as its chief restructuring officer. As part of the bankruptcy, Sears will shutter 142 stores toward the end of the year. It expects to begin liquidation sales shortly. The bankruptcy filing comes more than a decade...

Source: Reuters Sears is planning to close up to 150 of its department and discount stores and keep at least 300 open as part of a plan to restructure under U.S. bankruptcy protection, people familiar with the matter said Friday. The plans, which remained in flux Friday afternoon, would leave the fate of Sears' remaining roughly 250 stores uncertain, the sources said. The future of the stores could hinge on Sears' negotiations with landlords over their leases.

Sears Holdings Corp. could file for bankruptcy as early as this week as the company assesses how to manage its more than $130 million in debt, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The news outlet reported that Sears has $134 million in debt due on Monday. While chairman Edward Lampert could make the payment, the company has hired M-III Partners, a boutique advisory firm, to put together a possible bankruptcy filing. The Wall Street Journal reported that Lampert, whose hedgefund owns a majority of Sears' shares, is hoping to secure a restructuring of the company's debt, which would include the...

Sears Holdings Corp. SHLD -5.99% has hired M-III Partners LLC to prepare a bankruptcy filing that could come as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the situation, as the cash-strapped company that once dominated American retailing faces a debt payment deadline.