BREAKING: Sears: The End Is Near

Sears, once one of the nation's most iconic department stores is nearing the end of the run.

CNBC reports Sears Holdings has rejected Chairman Eddie Lampert's bid to save the company, setting the retailer with over 50,000 employees on a path to liquidation.

The once-mighty retailer has fallen into irrelevancy in recent decades, facing competition from more progressive-minded competitors like WalMart and Target.

The chain's last year in the black was 2010. Sears, which also owns the ailing K-Mart chain, filed for bankruptcy in October.

The Sears saga began in Minnesota after the Civil War. In 1886, railroad agent Richard Sears founded the Sears Watch Company, which relocated to Chicago, where Sears joined forces with businessman Alvah Roebuck.

The first Sears department store opened in Chicago in 1925. The Sears empire would eventually include the Allstate Insurance Company, K-Mart, Land's End and the Sears Tower in Chicago, once the world's tallest building.

Developing...

[Source: CNBC]