Wall Street Journal: Late Tuesday night, the hedge-fund manager continued control of the retailer he ran into bankruptcy court by kicking in an extra $150 million at the last minute.

The deal will keep open about 400 stores and preserve as many 50,000 jobs, but the company continues to lose money and lacks the scale to compete effectively.

Mr. Lampert must also get approval from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp for any further asset sales to cover Sears’s pension liabilities. Some retailers such as Mattress Firm Inc. and Payless ShoeSource have re-emerged from bankruptcy after shedding debts and shutting hundreds of stores.

Others such as Toys “R” Us Inc. and RadioShack have disappeared.

At its peak in 2006, a year after Mr. Lampert took control by merging Kmart and Sears, the company operated more than 2,300 stores.

At the time of the Kmart merger, Mr. Lampert was a Wall Street hotshot who was often compared with legendary investor Warren Buffett.

Now, Mr. Lampert has what might be his final chance to prove that his contrarian strategy is the right one. His mantra for Sears is to turn it into an “asset-light” company.