Bankers meeting to discuss financing for Sears Holdings Corp.’s impending bankruptcy erupted in disbelief when a headline crossed their smartphone screens. A breaking news report said that the bankers, gathered on Oct. 11 at the Manhattan offices of law firm Weil Gotshal & Manges, were pushing to liquidate the American retail icon instead of saving it with a new loan, Bloomberg News reported. The implications were clear, according to people familiar with the meeting: Keep Sears alive, or you’ll be publicly blamed for the 50,000 job losses that would come with its demise. As far as the bankers knew, the report wasn’t true, sources said. But even today, as they face a deadline in two weeks to extend more loans, the bankers can’t escape factoring in the social cost of their decision. In private meetings, representatives for Sears and related businesses have repeated the message, according to the sources. It’s also come up in Sears public comments and former Chief Executive Officer Eddie Lampert’s Dec. 6 bid to buy the company. Robert Riecker, the retail chain’s chief financial officer, made the same point on the day of the company’s October bankruptcy filing.
