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New York & Co. Wins Fashion to Figure Auction

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Women's apparel chain New York & Co. Inc. emerged as the winning bidder in the recent bankruptcy auction of Fashion to Figure, the New York Business Journal reported. The 99-year-old company agreed to purchase plus-size retailer for a total of $2.4 million, including all fees and expenses. Fashion to Figure was founded in 2004 by the great-grandsons of Lena Bryant, the founder of the plus-size clothing chain Lane Bryant. According to a prepared statement, New York & Co. — with 459 retail stores — now owns the intellectual property rights related to the Fashion to Figure, which was in the midst of an ongoing reorganization after it filed chapter 11. The asset-purchase agreement also covers trademarks, tradenames, an extensive customer database and all in-store assets, with the exception of inventory. Negotiations to secure inventory for the anticipated relaunch will begin in early 2018.

Peter Thiel Wants Opportunity to Bid on Gawker.com

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Peter Thiel is demanding that he be given the chance to bid on Gawker.com, the gossip and news website he helped drive out of business and which is now being shopped in bankruptcy, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Lawyers representing Thiel said in papers filed on Wednesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York that the billionaire venture capitalist is “the most able and logical purchaser” of Gawker.com but that, so far, his overtures have been rebuffed by the administrator overseeing the sale process. Thiel’s interest in the website, which has been dormant since August 2016, adds a new twist to the continuing legal wrangling between him and publisher of the blog, Gawker Media LLC. Thiel secretly financed Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against the publisher, the ruling on which by a jury forced the Gawker Media and its founder Nick Denton into chapter 11 last year and, ultimately, out of business. The filing also raises a new question about the ultimate fate of Gawker.com and its archive. The Wall Street Journal reported in October that the sale process had put Gawker’s articles at risk of being deleted. A new owner of Gawker.com would be free to remove old articles from the website. Assets for sale include the Gawker domain, social media accounts and nearly 200,000 published articles.

Takata Seals $1.6 Billion Sale of Assets to Key Safety

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Takata has signed a definitive agreement to sell nearly all of its operations to rival Key Safety Systems for $1.59 billion as part of its bankruptcy reorganization, CFO Magazine reported. The proceeds from the sale will be used to cover legal costs resulting from the exploding airbag scandal that drove Takata into chapter 11 in June. The deal does not include the problematic ammonium nitrate airbag inflator business, which will be run by the reorganized Takata and eventually will be wound down. Chinese-owned Key Safety beat out nearly a half dozen competitors to win a stalking-horse bid to acquire Takata out of bankruptcy.

LDI to Lose Ownership of Motorsports Firm That Filed for Bankruptcy

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A motorcycle-products company controlled by Indianapolis-based business-holding firm LDI Ltd. LLC has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after racking up about $440 million in debt. And its reorganization plan calls for replacing LDI as majority owner, the Indianapolis Business Journal reported. Motorsport Aftermarket Group (MAG) and its 18 affiliated companies filed the bankruptcy plans on Wednesday in Delaware. The Coppell, Texas-based company also disclosed a recapitalization plan that it says is expected eliminate about $300 million in debt. MAG is a manufacturer, distributor and online retailer of aftermarket products for the powersports industry. LDI has been involved with a MAG’s predecessor company since 1989 and took over majority ownership through a merger in 2014. LDI owns 59 percent of the company, according to bankruptcy documents.

Former Obama Administration Official in Bid for The Weinstein Co.

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Maria Contreras-Sweet, the former head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), has submitted an offer to acquire the Weinstein Co., a spokeswoman for the U.S. film and TV studio said on Sunday, Reuters reported. Contreras-Sweet has put together a consortium of investors who have offered $275 million for The Weinstein Co. The bid comes after the movie studio secured a $20 million cash infusion from the sale of the children’s movie “Paddington 2” last week to Warner Brothers Pictures, a unit of Time Warner Inc. The Weinstein Co.’s co-chairman Harvey Weinstein stepped down last month following sexual assault allegations. The movie studio, known for hit movies including “The King’s Speech” and “Silver Linings Playbook,” has been trying to find a buyer or rescue financing after more than 50 women claimed that Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them over the past three decades.
 

Original Soupman’s New Owners Hope to Stir New Life Into Company After Bankruptcy

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The new management team behind the Original Soupman Inc. is in the midst of cooking up a rebirth of the company after recently emerging from bankruptcy protection, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The soup purveyor, which licenses the recipes, likeness and name of Al Yeganeh, the man who inspired the “Soup Nazi” character on the television show “Seinfeld,” has had a tumultuous year. The company, now based in Eatontown, N.J., but previously of Staten Island, N.Y., sought bankruptcy protection in mid-June as it saw its cash flow dry up and one of its former executives indicted on tax-evasion charges. From the outset of the bankruptcy filing, the company’s attorneys said there was only one outcome in mind, to find a new owner. However, the new owner came as a surprise: an investor that was in the midst of a dispute with Soupman before and during the bankruptcy process.

Synchronoss Disputes Bondholders on $1 Billion Intralinks Sale

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Synchronoss Technologies Inc. is fighting back against bondholders who say the company breached its borrowing agreements through the $1 billion sale of its Intralinks Holdings Inc. subsidiary, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The sale of Intralinks to private-equity firm Siris Capital Group LLC closed this week. But creditors holding a majority of Synchronoss bonds have argued in letters to the company that the deal moved “substantially all” of its assets out of their reach without the buyer assuming their debt. Intralinks specializes in financial technology for the capital markets, providing secure data rooms critical for acquisition deals, capital raises and other types of disclosures between companies and investors. The $226 million in convertible bonds recently changed hands at 92.5 cents on the dollar, according to FactSet. Synchronoss said it would use the proceeds from the Intralinks sale primarily to retire other loans. The convertible bonds mature in 2019.