A hedge fund with ties to satellite mogul Charlie Ergen is headed for a bankruptcy-court showdown with Wall Street financier Philip Falcone over the fate of his LightSquared Inc. wireless venture, opening up yet another front in the battle for ownership of the airwaves needed to launch future mobile networks, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Sound Point Capital Management LP, a hedge-fund firm run by one of Ergen's former bankers, has been buying up LightSquared debt and now holds more than $600 million of the wireless company's roughly $1.7 billion bank loan, said people familiar with the trades. It is unclear whether Ergen or his company, satellite-television operator Dish Network Corp., has played a role in Sound Point's trading. The position gives Sound Point, which holds roughly $1.8 billion in assets, greater influence over LightSquared's bankruptcy proceedings and the potential to try to wrest control of the case from Falcone, the company's main backer through his hedge-fund firm, Harbinger Capital Partners.
