Sears chairman Eddie Lampert has upped his bid for some of the failed company's stores to $5 billion, hoping to shield it from liquidation, Reuters reports.
The state of play: The offer is 13% higher than Lampert's previous bid, which was rejected earlier this week.
Our thought bubble: Look at this brief timeline of Sears in the 21st century...
- Lampert's hedge fund, ESL Investments, bought bankrupt Kmart in 2003 to merge with Sears.
- After the Kmart-Sears Roebuck merger, Lampert was named chairman of the combined company, and then named CEO in 2013.
- Lampert sold hundreds of stores to a spin-off company in which he was an investor, took in millions of dollars worth of loans from himself and ESL, and shed marquee brands to raise cash — all while being accused of ripping Sears apart for his own personal gain.
- The company filed for bankruptcy in October.
Go deeper: The cannibal of Sears