Although Eddie Bauer was never officially up for sale, L.L. Bean was kept informed of how parent company Spiegel’s bankruptcy proceedings were progressing. It sounds like L.L. Bean is exploring ways to expand its retail presence and acquisition of Eddie Bauer, as a compatible outdoorsy kind of company, was a potential route to that end. But L.L. Bean decided last week to drop a potential pursuit of the not-yet-available Eddie Bauer.