In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, ESL chief Eddie Lampert increased his bid by another $200 million despite misgivings by many landlords and won the auction to keep the struggling retail chain going and 50,000 employees on the job. The final bid was $5.2 billion, up from a $5.0 billion bid offered last week that was an improvement on the original $4.4 billion bid. Creditors thus got an added $800 million to keep the chain open, but Lampert succeeded in getting his credit bid of $1.3 billion accepted as part of the deal and also got a much coveted ... Log in to view full article.