The daily business briefing: October 15, 2018

Sears files for bankruptcy protection, stocks lose more ground as tensions rise over oil-rich Saudi Arabia, and more

Saudi consulate.
(Image credit: OZAN KOSE / AFP)

1. Sears files for bankruptcy protection

Sears Holdings filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, aiming to cut its debts and keep the struggling department store chain operating at least through the holiday shopping season. The announcement came on a day when Sears had a $134 million loan payment. Eddie Lampert will remain chairman but step down as CEO, with a three-person committee taking over to lead the restructuring. Lampert's hedge fund will put up $300 million in bankruptcy financing. The company, once a leading retail innovator, has cut its work force from 302,000 a decade ago to 68,000 today as it shut more than 1,000 stores due to plunging sales and overwhelming competition from big-box stores and online rivals. Sears will close another 142 of its remaining stores by year's end.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.