The $4.6 billion bid by Sears Holdings Corp. Chairman Edward Lampert to salvage what's left of the bankrupt retailer was pitched by the hedge fund manager as a way to preserve tens of thousands of jobs. The bid, if successful, would come with an important condition: a full release from liability over controversial deals his fund made before the 125-year-old retailer filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, the Chicago Tribune reported. Those transactions — a series of spinoffs, rights offerings and refinancings starting in 2012 — are being probed by both Sears and a committee of unsecured creditors who stand to lose everything in the bankruptcy. Lampert entities now hold $2.6 billion of loans, making him the company's biggest creditor. Those claims are key to his bid because he would roll a significant portion of them into equity in a reorganized company. Taking the hedge fund manager up on his offer would defang the probes into Lampert's deals, an investigation that so far has caused Sears and others to hand over 400,000 pages of documents.
