Sears Gets $500 Million Loan as Lampert, Gates's Cascade Jump In

Sears Holdings Corp., the department-store operator run by hedge fund manager Edward Lampert, obtained a new short-term loan partially funded by an investment firm that manages billionaire Bill Gates’s fortune. Cascade Investment has funded $125 million of a $500 million loan that Sears raised by using about 20 of its mortgaged properties as collateral, the retailer said Friday in a statement. Another $125 million for the loan maturing in July 2017 was provided by ESL Investments, which is controlled by Lampert.