Last year Sears made Craftsman brand more of an seperate company within Sears than it had been prior. It is one of the companies valuable assets. One would assume this was done to possibly prepare it to be sold. It is nice to have an outlet for Craftsman other than Kmart and Sears...both seem doomed. My guess is this is the begining of some big changes for the brand. I think Ace tools are made by Danaher or at least some are.
I have to say though, if Sears did go under i'd hope someone else would be interested in the Craftsman brand. My problem with Ace is their stores tend to be the reminents of whats left of the old day mom and pop hardware stores, so you wont have near the selection you would in a sears simply due to space limitations. They might carry 1 type of drill for example, or a basic 7 piece box wrench set etc.. I cant see them stocking larger items like table saws, and certainly nothing like the starter tool sets with a box let alone a tool chest.