Sears once owned brands for everything from car insurance to real-estate advice - here's where they are now

AP Photo/Paul Sakuma

Sears narrowly avoided liquidation on Wednesday.

• In its heyday, Sears was not only the biggest retailer in the world, but it also owned and founded multiple companies and brands offering everything from car insurance to kitchen appliances.
• Several of these companies and brands still exist to this day, while others have either been shut down or sold.
• Here's what happened to them.

In its heyday, Sears was far more than the crumbling department-store chain we see today.

In addition to being the largest retailer in the world, Sears owned a wealth of different brands offering services from car insurance to real-estate advice. Many of these businesses were shed along the way as the company came under pressure, sales slid, and it was forced to sharpen its focus on retail once more.

This week, Sears narrowly escaped liquidation after a more than $5 billion bid from former CEO and current chairman Eddie Lampert was accepted. Lampert's hedge fund ESL Investments said last week that its bid, which still needs to be approved by the bankruptcy court, would allow the company to keep some 400 stores open and save up to 50,000 jobs.

Read more: Sears, once the largest retailer in the world, has narrowly avoided liquidation. Here's how its downfall played out.

There are still a handful of brands and companies that are owned by Sears and that it managed to hold on to throughout its bankruptcy. On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Sears would be holding on to Kenmore and DieHard. A spokesperson for the company declined to comment on this.

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