And in other news, how to do a new version of a TWA for 2020, lets call it JC Penny............

[turbinetree]

J.C. Penney reaches tentative rescue deal, averting liquidation

BUSINESS NEWS SEPTEMBER 9, 2020 / 1:29 PM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO

Jessica DiNapoli, Mike Spector
6 MIN READ

NEW YORK (Reuters) - J.C. Penney Co Inc reached a tentative deal with landlords and lenders valued at $1.75 billion to rescue the beleaguered department store chain from bankruptcy proceedings, averting a liquidation that would have threatened roughly 70,000 jobs and represented one of the most significant business collapses following the coronavirus pandemic, a company lawyer said.

Mall owners Simon Property Group Inc and Brookfield Property Partners LP have teamed up to acquire J.C. Penney’s retail operations and are putting the finishing touches on an agreement, Joshua Sussberg, a Kirkland & Ellis LLP lawyer representing the company, said during a brief court hearing Wednesday, confirming an earlier Reuters report.

The landlords are poised to put $300 million toward the rescue and have agreed to a nonbinding letter of intent with J.C. Penney, he said. The operating company they are acquiring would assume $500 million of debt.

J.C. Penney plans to move at “lightning speed” to seek approval of the deal from a bankruptcy judge in early October, Sussberg said. “We are in a position to move this into the endzone,” he told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones, noting that previous talks were in the “red zone” before faltering and then gaining renewed traction.

Reporting by Mike Spector and Jessica DiNapoli in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jc-penney-sale-bankruptcy-exclusive/j-c-penney-reaches-tentative-rescue-deal-averting-liquidation-idUSKBN2602VS?il=0

[The Genealogist]

1. Breaks my heart to see Penney's go through this

My grandma LOVED Penney's, so almost every time I stayed with her, we'd go to Penney's. Good memories.

[matt819]

2. These are not white knights

They will strip the remaining assets, sell the properties where they can, abandon where they can’t, fire everyone they can, picket millions and then declare bankruptcy. All without leaving their offices.

[turbinetree]

4. Just like what Icahn and that bunch did to TWA.........and Frank Lorenzo bunch............

[Freethinker65]

5. Actually these are mall owners, not the typical venture/vulture capitalists.

I think Penney's is one of their remaining anchor stores in a lot of their malls. I don't know what they are thinking except that if Penney's goes under for good, so do their malls?

The ones near me had Carson's (gone), Sears (gone), Lord and Taylor (gone), ...

[matt819]

8. I know

But even Simon has to know that malls are not the future. And even if it were, J.C. Penney is long past the days of being an anchor that will draw shoppers.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. Perhaps Not

These are shopping center operators.
The synergism between owning the brick & mortar, and having a vested interest in operations is likely strong.
The specialty stores won't stick around with zero big store traffic, so these outfits might be saving their own businesses, and that only works if Penny's succeeds.

[muntrv]

3. Just like Sears.

[Moostache]

7. The entire retail sales sector is going to go under, its not if but when...

Best Buy announced a plan to shutter one of its better performing stores in the St. Louis region recently due to a lease conflict with one of these landlord outfits...they were actually doing fair despite the massive disruption to the economy and the overall bloodbath in retail and especially in electronics sales - where internet pricing and Amazon delivery have essentially ate their lunch, took the cookies and shoved them into a mud puddle for good measure...

The entire consumer economy is undergoing seismic shifts still and the dust is not yet settled. For anything that can be sold and shipped, if price is the main concern, then brick and mortars are doomed. Take entertainment items like physical media for games, music, videos and movies. For the past 40-50 years, from LPs to 8-tracks to Cassette Tapes to CDs and from Betamax and VHS to LaserDisc and DVD and Blu-Ray and Ultra HD 4K Blu-Ray and from Atari to Nintendo to Playstation and X-Boxes one of the many cornerstones of retail sales and malls (both the interior and strip varieties) have been anchored by these sales.

Best Buy. Circuit City. Waldenbooks. Borders books. Toys R' Us. Virgin Records. Tower Records. Many many more...

All are disappearing rapidly. TVs are bought online and delivered. Music is nearly all streamed, downloaded or cloud-based distribution. Movies are rapidly exiting the physical media space too as bandwidth and quality provide no incentive to own the media and store it when you can access nearly anything in very short order. Games are all being distributed online and I can't see that going back, ever...

This is just the latest shift in the way things are bought and sold and distributed, and progress is going to come no matter what - but this is just another case of jobs that once allowed people to make a half-way decent living without specific education, skills or both that is disappearing forever. Salesclerks, knowledgeable and skilled in sales and in technology, are being eliminated. They aren't the first, and won't be the last...but their pain is going to be lasting and it is going to hit us all as the economy really begins to emerge from COVID-19 with a whole lot of people never going back to what they did before it hit.

The system was rotting to begin with, but we're not prepared for this in any way...