-Inside Saks’ Fight for Its Life: Bankruptcy Filing
If you visited Saks fifth avenue – the century-old department store in Manhattan – just one month ago, you’d have seen it was literally glowing, its façade decorated with thousands of glittering lights for the holidays.
Now, the twinkling has stopped, and the elaborate holiday displays have been dismantled. Black paper covers the windows.
Late on Tuesday, Saks Global filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Southern District of Texas.
It capped a tumultuous 13-month chapter for the company, which also owns Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus, that was marked by executive turnover and lawsuits, missed payments, and broken promises.
By the end of the year, dozens of vendors – some of which had not been paid in full for over a year – had paused shipments to the company, leaving it without the necessary inventory to survive past the holiday season, according to the bankruptcy declaration.
What happens next could have consequences for customers.Stores could close, and layoffs could follow. Brands,many of which are unsecured creditors and could never get paid back,are waiting in the wings.
“It’s been a roller coaster until now,” Gary Wassner, the CEO of hilldun Corp., which acts as a sort of guarantor or insurer for brands, told Business Insider.
hilldun represents about 140 brands that sell to Saks - in the past, it’s worked with big names like Tommy Hilfiger, Marc Jacobs, and A.L.C. – and is owed about $66 million, Wassner said.
“It’s a relief at this point,” he said. “I’m finaly able to plan on how to move forward.”
Instead, according to Saks’ bankruptcy filing, the deal created more problems, leading to “immediate liquidity challenges” and a capital structure that became “unsustainable.”
The deal was financed by $2.2 billion worth of junk bonds – debt that carries high interest rates – which S&P Global warned investors about at the time. It left the company strapped for cash, leading to a round of layoffs to start the year (multiple more would follow).
“These highly leveraged deals – and these mergers and acquisitions are almost always highly leveraged – start out in a less than wonderfully attractive way,” Mark Cohen,the former CEO of Sears Canada,told Business Insider.”This is a house of cards from a financial point of view.”
One of the first red flags arose on Valentine’s Day, when vendors, who are owed hundreds of millions of dollars, according to bankruptcy documents, received an “I-love-you-not” from then-Saks Global CEO Marc Metrick.
He told them that they’d have to wait. Saks would prioritize paying back the lenders who helped finance the Neiman Marcus acquisition. It would pay its vendor bills – in certain specific cases, more than a year past due – in installments stretched over 12 months that wouldn’t begin until summer.
Vendors, some of whom were burned by similar communications prior to the 2019 bankruptcy of the iconic Some brands went even further, taking direct aim at Saks.
Skincare brand Sunday Riley said it threatened to sue if payments were not made, Retail Dive reported in August.
In October, Jovani Fashion, the dressmaker made famous by “Real housewives of New York” star Luann de Lesseps, filed a lawsuit against Saks Global – a rare step in a relationship-driven industry. Jovani said Saks owed $295,651 for merchandise it accepted this year. (Saks has denied wrongdoing.) Other brands have since followed suit.
By the end of the year, murmurs of a potential bankruptcy filing made headlines.
Only a killer holiday season could save the store – and that did not happen. Inventory was still lagging, and there were issues integrating the Neiman Marcus and Saks platforms, which further disrupted inventory during any retailer’s most critical season.
On the last day of 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported that Saks
Okay, I will analyze the provided code snippet and follow the instructions meticulously, adhering to all constraints.
PHASE 1: ADVERSARIAL RESEARCH,FRESHNESS & BREAKING-NEWS CHECK
the provided code is heavily obfuscated JavaScript. It appears to be a Webpack chunk,likely related to a dynamic import or code splitting strategy. Without deobfuscation, determining its factual claims is impractical. However,the presence of r(69531) suggests a dependency on a module with ID 69531 within the Webpack bundle. This module ID itself isn’t a factual claim, but a technical detail.
I will focus on researching the techniques used in the code (Webpack, dynamic imports, code obfuscation) and checking for recent developments in those areas as of 2026/01/14 18:12:07.
* Webpack: Webpack remains a widely used module bundler as of January 2026. Recent updates (late 2025/early 2026) have focused on performance improvements, notably around build times and tree-shaking. Webpack Blog
* Dynamic Imports: Dynamic imports (import()) are a standard JavaScript feature and continue to be actively used for code splitting and on-demand loading. Browser compatibility is excellent. MDN web Docs – import
* Code Obfuscation: Code obfuscation remains a common technique to protect intellectual property and make reverse engineering more difficult. however,it’s not foolproof and can be bypassed with sufficient effort. Newer obfuscation techniques are constantly evolving to counter deobfuscation tools. OWASP – Security Logging and Monitoring Failures (relevant to detecting obfuscated code)
Breaking News Check: As of January 14, 2026, there are no major breaking news events directly related to Webpack, dynamic imports, or code obfuscation that fundamentally change their status. The trends mentioned above (performance improvements in Webpack, continued use of dynamic imports, and the ongoing arms race between obfuscation and deobfuscation) are consistent with the latest facts.
PHASE 2: ENTITY-BASED GEO
Given the nature of the code, identifying a single “Primary Entity” is difficult. The most relevant entities are the technologies involved.
Webpack Module Bundler
Table of Contents
Webpack is a static module bundler for modern JavaScript applications. It takes modules with dependencies and generates static asset files. The code snippet provided appears to be a chunk generated by Webpack, utilizing dynamic imports for code splitting. Recent updates to Webpack, as of January 2026, prioritize build performance and tree-shaking efficiency. Webpack Concepts
Dynamic Imports and Code Splitting
The use of import() within the code suggests a dynamic import strategy. Dynamic imports allow JavaScript code to be loaded on demand, improving initial page load times and reducing the amount of JavaScript that needs to be parsed and executed upfront. MDN Web Docs – import
Code Obfuscation Techniques
The heavily obfuscated nature of the code indicates an attempt to protect the underlying JavaScript logic.Code obfuscation involves transforming the code to make it more difficult for humans to understand, while still maintaining its functionality. Common techniques include variable renaming, string encoding, and control flow flattening. OWASP – Security Logging and Monitoring Failures
Module ID 69531
The presence of r(69531) suggests a dependency on a specific module within the Webpack bundle. Without access to the complete Webpack configuration and source map, it’s impossible to determine the functionality of this module. Module IDs are internal to the Webpack build process and are not inherently meaningful without context. Webpack Chunk Loading
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