The iconic 125-year old retailer Sears may have less than 24 hour to survive before creditors opt to liquidate the storied firm, which filed for bankruptcy in October, according to published reports.  Despite receiving $300 million in debtor in possession financing from Bank of America and other lenders, and an additional $350 million from Great American Capital Partners to sustain the retailer through the holiday season, CNBC reports that the firm is "the closest to death it has ever been" as the deadline expires today on a last ditch effort to save the company by Eddie Lampert, the Chairman of Sears Holdings.

On December 5 Lampert told regulators and the bankruptcy court his hedge fund, ESL Investments, planned to cobble together $4.6 billion in financing, including a substantial asset-based credit facility from a newly-formed entity called Newco.

Lampert proposed acquiring substantially all of the assets of the debtors in the Chapter 11 Cases pursuant to a sale under section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code, as well as substantially all of the assets of non-Debtors, KCD IP, LLC, SRC O.P., LLC, SRC Facilities LLC and SRC Real Estate (TX), LLC. He has until the end of December 28 to obtain the financing he needs to save Sears. According to a CNBC report, thanks to a dearth of collateral ESL Investments has struggled to compete with DIP lenders who favor liquidation.

Meanwhile, “Sears is burning through cash so rapidly that if it doesn’t secure more money, it could run out of cash to support its business in as soon as two weeks,” according to CNBC.